OECD report truly awful news for the Government - Cable

Today’s OECD report was ‘truly awful’ for the Government, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.

The report’s main findings were that:

· Growth will be below 1.5% this year

· Because of inflationary pressures, further interest rates cuts will not be possible this year

· Disregarding Northern Rock, the Government will break its rule of not borrowing more than 40% of GDP in 2009

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said:

"This is truly awful news for the Government. It confirms all the worst fears about a deteriorating economy, and the lack of any freedom of manoeuvre due to lax control of government spending on Gordon Brown’s watch.

"Instead of just drifting, ministers should plan ahead to mitigate the worst effects of the coming slowdown. The Government must ensure we do not get the spiralling repossessions we saw during the Tory recession of the early 1990s."