New, more realistic, figures for future economic growth confirm BRC’s fears of a weaker recovery but will help moves to tackle the deficit, said the British Retail Consortium.

Figures released today by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast GDP growth over the next few years. They predict 2.6% growth for 2011 compared with previous Treasury forecasts of 3.25%.

Stephen Robertson, British Retail Consortium Director General, said: "There's nothing to be gained from hiding the severity of this national financial crisis or the scale of the measures needed to get to grips with it. An honest and effective plan to tackle the public finances needs this more objective approach even though it confirms our fears about the where the economy really is.

"The OBR's figures are closer to our own analysis. They better reflect reality and show that the Government must follow through on even bigger spending cuts than announced so far."