Osborne: Growth figures 'significantly up'

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has presented its analysis of Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement.

ITV News economics editor Richard Edgar reports:

The Chancellor has rejected Labour's accusation that voters were £1,600 worse off a year under the Coalition, insisting the austerity programme had kept interest rates down and allowed him to freeze petrol duty and to increase the personal tax allowance.

"Ultimately, the folk who are just about to go out to work, they understand that having a job and having low interest rates are incredibly important to them and their families," George Osborne told Daybreak.

The Coalition was able to "take further action" to keep the lost of living down by freezing fuel duty, increase the personal tax free allowance and take young people out of jobs tax.

ITV News met a group of voters to find out how the Autumn Statement will affect them:

Stay-at-home father Joshua Lovelee and 17-month-old Evie

Josh says a fuel duty cut won't help them much but any help with energy bills is really appreciated though. He's pleased with the introduction of flexible maternity/paternity leave and would like help for flexible childcare when he goes back to work.

Jordan Withy, 19, works in Crucial BMX

Jordan will have to work for the next 51 years to draw a state pension.

Don Cameron of Cameron Balloons

They export 85% of their business and he said the changes are just "tinkering" and he would like to see favourable exchange rates to help businesses.

Effective and immediate action is needed to "tackle the youth unemployment crisis", a trade union warned after George Osborne's Autumn Statement.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Almost a million young people are currently looking for work and will have been hoping for much more than the Chancellor offered them today.

“While it’s good news that employers are to be encouraged to provide more apprenticeships and that they won’t have to pay national insurance contributions for some young people in the future, effective and immediate action is needed to tackle the youth unemployment crisis.

“Unfortunately all the government has to offer is new measures to make young people work for free, when what is really needed is a job guarantee."

Economic growth this year and next is predicted to be higher than previously forecast, but then hits a plateau.

A word cloud showing how Twitter reacted to the measures announced in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement has been published by the business advisory service Deloitte UK.

The firm used a social media monitoring tool to trawl tweets using a number of economic and finance-related phrases.

It appears that the issues of tax, business and rates were the most tweeted terms.