More good news for chancellor George Osborne arrived today in the form of figures suggesting UK economic growth will be strong, unemployment lower and inflation under control in the build-up to next year’s general election.

Figures from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) show that the economy will grow 2.9 per cent this year and 2.4 per cent next.

It says unemployment will average 6.5 per cent this year, down from 6.9 per cent currently and consumer price inflation will hover around the two per cent target rate. It’s currently at 1.7 per cent.

NIESR said it had also lifted growth prediction in the longer term, with UK GDP now expected to increase by around 2.4 per cent in 2016 and 2017.

But less well-received is news the real wages continue to struggle and won’t return to pre-recession levels for another four years.

In addition NIESR said business productivity, a measure which underpins wage growth and relative business success, will also continue to struggle.

“The unemployment rate has fallen by one percentage point in the past year, and we expect it to drop to close to 6 per cent from 2015,” read the report.

“The corollary of robust growth in employment over the past few years, combined with economic weakness, has been a sharp fall in productivity growth.

“Indeed, since 2008 UK productivity performance has closely tracked that of Italy. Even the return of GDP growth, however, has not yet resulted in significant productivity increases.”