Economy at healthiest levels in more than decade

The
UK economy is now in its best shape since the 1990s, according to an economic
think-tank.

Ernst
and Young’s Item Club report says the economy will grow by 3.5 per cent this
year and 3 per cent in 2005.

But
it cautioned that Chancellor Gordon Brown was spending too much, and that UK
public debt was becoming a problem.

"With
a global economy firing on all four cylinders and a UK economy in its best
shape since the late 1990s, we can look forward to robust growth in the next
two years," said the Item Club’s chief economic adviser, Peter Spencer.

By Mike Berry