§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 24 July 1998,Official Report, column 750, how many of the 45 surveys referred to were published prior to the publication of the Comprehensive Spending Review; and how many of the surveys published after the publication of the Comprehensive Spending Review were more pessimistic than the assumptions used by the Treasury in the EFSR. [53914]
§ Ms HewittThe most recent edition of the Treasury's regular comparison of independent forecasts was published in July. It is available in the House of Commons Library and more widely via the Treasury's Internet site.
Twenty-seven out of the forty-five surveys were new in July and so followed the Economic and Fiscal Strategy Report which set out the key information on the new spending plans, subsequently confirmed in the Comprehensive Spending Review. The average forecast for growth in 1999 in these new forecasts is almost exactly in line with the Treasury assumption adopted in the Economic and Fiscal Strategy Report. Around half of them show higher growth, and around half are lower.