Much was made in the media of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s suggested reduction in the assumed long-term trend growth rate of the economy. It would appear from the analysis that there was a 0.65% reduction in assumed trend growth from 2.75% to 2.1% (from 2014). This is a huge reduction, but it was glossed over by the media because of the fact that Treasury forecasts tended to use a “conservative” 2.5% figure instead of 2.75%. Because the new Treasury forecasts will use the (central) 2.1% figure the fall in the trend growth rate as far as the forecasts are concerned is “only” 0.4%.