The coalition is "most unlikely" to meet its two key economic goals before the general election, a conservative thinktank says.
In a report published on Monday, the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) said the coalition had already given up hope of getting rid of the structural deficit by 2015 and that the chance of ensuring that public-sector debt is falling by the time of the next election is now slim.
The CPS, whose claims are rejected by the Treasury, also said the government's problems were exacerbated by the fact that many people do not understand the difference between debt and deficit and that they will be shocked to learn that debt (the historic total owed by the nation) will be around £600bn higher in 2015 than it was in 2010 even though the deficit (annual borrowing) will be lower.
The coalition "will be vulnerable at the next general election when opposition parties could argue that the huge increase in debt is primarily the result of economic incompetence", the CPS report said. » | Andrew Sparrow, political correspondent | Monday, August 27, 2012
