Triple Dip avoided – but how on earth can Osborne cheer this?

George Osborne and David Cameron are presumably slapping themselves on the back this morning and celebrating what a jolly good job they’re doing on the Economy. Such is the level of Osborne’s failure, growth of 0.3% (which could easily be rounded down to nothing at all) will be deemed something of a success by some.

It shouldn’t be. 

Let’s take a look at how much the UK economy has grown in the last 6 months shall we:

Maybe “grown” was the wrong word – because the economy has, of course, not grown at all. “But this is unfair!”, I hear the Tories cry, “you can’t just compare two quarters and call that a trend”. And do you know what, they have a point.

So let’s look at the last 18 months of “growth” in the UK:

Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, that’s an enormous 0.4% of growth over 6 quarters. Or a titanic o.o66% growth per quarter.

Probably best to put the Champagne back on ice, eh George?

Update: How has the UK economy done since Osborne’s Spending Review/Emergency Budget in 2010? That’s more bad news for the Chancellor:

Between then and Q4 2012 (the latest figures available) the USA has grown by 4.3% and Germany by 3%.