国际英语新闻：British Chancellor says economy on the path to recovery

LONDON, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- British Chancellor George Osborne on Monday welcomed new figures on the British economy which showed it growing more strongly than expected and debt expected to fall.

Osborne said: "It's clear that our decisive actions prove we can live within our means, this government has taken Britain out of the financial danger zone" and set the economy "on the path to recovery.

He pointed to a forecast that showed the cost of servicing the government debts is expected to fall by 19 billion pounds (about 29.6 billion U.S. dollars) over the period to 2015.

He added: "We took decisive action - the British recovery is on track; our public finances are under control, our economy is rebalancing."

Chancellor Osborne was speaking in the House of Commons after publication of key economic data by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

The forecast from the OBR contained an upward revision of its summer forecast of 1.2 percent to 1.8 percent growth this year, on the back of two stronger-than-expected performances in the second quarter (1.2 percent growth) and the third quarter (0.8 percent). The British economy has now been out of recession for four quarters.

This stronger-than-expected growth was seen against a background of in-year government budget cuts of 6 billion pounds ( about 9.3 billion U.S. dollars) and the continuing effect of a sales tax rise that took place at the beginning of January.

Cuts and a further increase in the sales tax which come into effect at the beginning of 2011 mean that the OBR also cut the forecast growth for 2011 to 2.1 percent from 2.3 percent. 2011 first quarter is forecast to be the toughest, with expected growth of only 0.3 per cent.

The OBR also revised growth down from 2.3 percent to 2.1 percent for 2012, however it said there would be no return to recession.

Since the OBR issued its summer forecast the chancellor has introduced an autumn spending review, that saw 81 billion pounds lopped off government spending over the next four years.

This is the most drastic cutback in government spending since the Second World War, and saw 11 billion pounds taken off welfare spending, by far the largest area of expenditure in the government 's budget.

This cutback was not included in the OBR's summer figures, and factoring it in now has meant the OBR has reduced its forecast for job losses over the coming four years as a result of government budget cuts from 490,000 to 330,000.

Public sector net borrowing is likely to fall from 148.5 billion pounds for 2010-11 to 18 billion pounds in 2015-16. By then, public sector net debt is expected to be 67.2 percent of national income, down 0.2 percentage points from the June budget forecast, said the OBR.