Overall government spending has continued to rise; the budget deficit has remained stubbornly high.
Yet as cost estimates have risen — the budget now stands at £42.6 billion, or $65.8 billion — so has opposition to the project.
Inflation is rising; the budget is in deficit; the currency is falling; and people are rushing to turn their savings into dollars or gold.Decisive action is called for, but is unlikely to come from the Communist Party's showcase congress, its 11th, later this month.
But traders, big investors and strategists are paying close attention to their Bloomberg terminals and BlackBerrys this year, as anxiety rises over the budget impasse in Washington.
Interest rates have been rising, the federal budget deficit is growing and the nearly 22-year-old bull market in bonds may be over.
Because growth has been so slow, tax revenues have barely risen, and the budget deficit has remained stubbornly high.
Baby boomers are retiring and health costs are still rising, so the budget prospect for 2020 or 2025 is troubling.
He is forecasting "quite slow growth" in the longer term outside central London, where he says prices have only really been rising since the budget in March.
The public debt is at 106% of GDP and rising, and the budget deficit is some 4% of GDP (against the euro area's stability-pact ceiling of 3%).The macroeconomic picture is thus pretty ugly.
