Slowest recovery for two centuries on the cards

Office for Budget Responsibility figures point to a "painful" recovery process

The economic recovery is going to be the slowest since records began 180 years ago, reports claim.

Figures released by government watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility reveal how slug-like wage growth, high inflation and VAT rises are chipping away at family budgets.

According to an article from This Is Money, the OBR results reveal that spending by the next general election in 2015 will be 5.4 per cent above the level in 2008 – the year the economic crisis hit.

After recessions in the early 1980s and 1990s, spending was 20 per cent and 15 per cent higher respectively.

Speaking to This is Money, Simon Kirby of the National Institute for Economic and Social Research said: “The recession may have been relatively benign for households, but the recovery is going to be particularly awful. Everyone will hear and read about the economy growing in the news, it’s just that households are not going to notice it.”