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Economy expected to show strongest growth since 2007

Official figures are expected to show the economy is growing at its fastest rate since 2007, the year before the crash. But Business Secretary Vince Cable warned the recovery could prove to be a "short term bounce" if it is based on a housing boom.

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Claims economy is improving is 'cloud cuckoo land'

Claims that Britain's economy is now powering ahead are "cloud cuckoo land" according to shadow chancellor Ed Balls.

With official figures today expected to show the pace of economic growth continuing to pick up, Mr Balls said that it had still to return to the level it was before the global financial crisis broke in 2008.

He told BBC2's Newsnight:

Do you really think up and down the country at the moment when most people are seeing their living standards fall and in most parts of the country there isn't new business investment coming through, do you think that is an economy that is doing really, really well? That is cloud cuckoo land.

Finally, finally we're getting some growth back in our economy. We're below where we were before the crisis. Even France is above its pre-crisis peak.

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