What's the French for humble pie? Whatever it is, Olivier Blanchard was eating a grande assiette of it on Monday. This time last year, with the UK seemingly teetering on the brink of a triple-dip recession, the IMF's urbane chief economist warned George Osborne that he was "playing with fire" by sticking to his austerity plans. Twelve months on, the IMF expects Britain to be the fastest-growing of the major developed countries in 2014.
The chancellor, who was mightily cross with Blanchard's unwanted advice last year, could have been excused had he decided to gloat. Wisely, he declined to do so. In part that was because the IMF's admission that it had got it wrong spoke for itself. In part it was because Osborne knows that the IMF is right when it says the UK recovery is unbalanced and too dependent on the fillip provided by a fast-developing property boom.
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