Gear doesn't seem to be working. Job creation and economic growth will be stagnant this year.
We are still in the wave of huge volatility some factors are outside the government's immediate control, some are related to exogenous factors which affects planning. Timing luck is very important in the macroeconomic arena. For example, the US economy underwent 13 years of muddling through from the 1980s, but when it kicked in it did so solidly.
So external factors are preventing Gear from reaching its targets?
Yes. In terms of the wider framework, Gear is unassailable. But in terms of some of the targets set, like growth and jobs, they are very difficult to achieve in the current climate. In terms of some other targets Gear is on track like the deficit. In this area we have made a lot of progress, as the deficit has come down considerably since we introduced Gear in 1996. In that year the government deficit was 5.4%. We brought it in to 4.1% in 1997, and we now have a framework of 3.5%