British Prime Minister David Cameron sparked a political row on Wednesday after declaring that “good news will keep coming” on the economy this week, hinting at the outcome of key growth data due on Thursday.
Cameron, taking part in his weekly question-and-answer session, defended his government’s handling of the economy and boasted of recent favourable economic indicators, including lower inflation and falling unemployment.
He then told opposition Labour party leader Ed Miliband: “I can tell you, the good news will keep coming.”
The Office of National Statistics was due Thursday to publish the initial estimate of gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter, or July-September period.
Cameron and other top-ranking ministers and officials are given 24 hours’ notice to the GDP figures, on condition that they are not disclosed.
Labour accused Cameron of making a “clear reference” to the eagerly awaited data, which is widely forecast to show that the longest double-dip recession since the 1950s was over.
However, the prime minister’s official spokesman denied that the premier was talking about the GDP figures.
“He was basically saying we are on the right track, the government has the right policies and the economy is healing and rebalancing,” the spokesman said.
“The issue here is — was he (Cameron) talking about tomorrow’s figures? I’m telling you he wasn’t.”
The ONS will publish the latest British economic output figures at 0830 GMT on Thursday.
Market expectations are that Britain, which is not part of the eurozone, will post an economic expansion of 0.6 percent in the third quarter, after falling into a painful second recession in late 2011.
“He was clearly referring to the GDP figures. That’s clearly in breach of the rules,” a senior Labour source added, in reference to Cameron’s comments.
“It is not only shambolic but wrong for the prime minister to hint at tomorrow’s growth figures before they are officially published.”
Cameron hints at 'good news' on eve of vital GDP data
