UK Treasury chief George Osborne said that economic growth would be much slower than expected and his government would have to borrow almost £60bn ($90.6bn ) more than planned over coming years, which is likely to fuel growing criticism of his austerity drive and stewardship of the economy.

In the three months since Osborne last updated dated the country the economic backdrop has deteriorated markedly: output shrank in the fourth quarter of 2012 leaving the economy at risk of falling into its third recession in five years, while the UK has been stripped if its triple-A credit rating. A recession is typically defined as two consecutive quarters of falling output and gross domestic product fell 0.3% in the last three months of 2012.