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    Revealed: how Osborne misled MPs over the deficit

    The Chancellor said that borrowing was forecast to fall this year but the small print of the

    Office for Budget Responsibility document suggests otherwise.

    Against expectations, George Osborne announced in his Budget speech that the deficit

    was forecast to fall "this year and next". He insisted that this was the case even if special factors (such as the transfer of the

    Royal Mail pension fund) are excluded.

    But scour the small print of the Office for Budget Responsibility document and it emerges

    that the Chancellor misled the House. As Table 4.36 shows, "excluding Royal Mail, APF and SLS transfers" (the final column),

    borrowing is forecast to rise from £121bn in 2011-12 to £123.2bn in 2012-13. As in last year's Autumn Statement, when he

    banked the 4G receipts early,

    Osborne has once again relied on smoke and mirrors to disguise his fiscal failings.

    This isn't mere pedantry; consistent deficit reduction is crucial to Osborne's narrative that "we're on the right track". But as the

    figures below show, that is far from the case.

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