Instant View - Osborne delivers Autumn Statement

LONDON (Reuters) - Chancellor George Osborne delivered a more upbeat outlook for the UK economy in his Autumn Statement on Thursday, announcing stronger growth forecasts and trimming borrowing requirements for the next few years. Osborne said the economy was on track to grow by 1.4 percent this year - more than double the 0.6 percent pencilled in at the time of the March budget. Growth in 2014, he said, was expected to be 2.4 percent, up from the previous estimate of 1.8 percent. He also forecast the budget would show a small surplus by 2018/19. BRIAN HILLIARD - SOCIETE GENERALE "The standout statement of course is that they are going to reach surplus by 2018/19, most of that is due to improvement in the business cycle rather than the structural deficit. "The Debt/GDP ratio picking up a year earlier is good news but it's still a year later than the fiscal world would demand. "He also made a comment on capital welfare spending but having got the chance to look at the announcement made on that in the June spending round there words were identical so I am wondering if there was anything new in that at all." HOWARD ARCHER - HIS GLOBAL INSIGHT "The government borrowing and debt forecasts are still horribly high, but they do look an awful lot better than they did back in March. Specifically, the forecasts show that the government will borrow £73 billion less between 2013/14 and 2017/18 than was expected in March." ALAN CLARKE - SCOTIABANK On upgrade of GDP forecast: "They are bang in line with market consensus, to be honest they could have been a bit higher." On the 2018/19 budget surplus: "That's not a bit shocker. It seems plausible. The numbers are close to what was expected." PHILIP SHAW - INVESTEC "The OBR's new GDP forecasts for 2013 and 2014 are no surprise. In effect the authorities are catching up with the market view after a nine-month period without a forecast. It strikes me that the forecasts for the four subsequent years look somewhat conservative given the degree of spare capacity that remains in the economy. "On the borrowing numbers the lower profile is no surprise, they seem to be more or less in the right ballpark, perhaps again, a little bit on the conservative side. Whether we reach surplus in 2018/19 is very difficult to say given the timeframe involved between now and then and the number of things that can affect the figures." PETER DIXON - COMMERZBANK "To be honest it's not really a major surprise. I think they were quite conservative in terms of what they are looking for in the next year and the year after. I think it's reasonable, I think it's more or less in line with what they were saying. In some ways I am surprised they haven't actually been more aggressive but it's definitely an achievable set of figures." (susan.fenton@thomsonreuters.com, +44 207 542 2945)