We should be celebrating. Yesterday brought a raft of good news about the British economy.
Tax receipts up, retail spending up, manufacturers' order books growing, and the public finances in a marginally better shape than we feared - crack open the bubbly and cry 'hoorah'.
Of course, there is always the proviso that one set of figures does not a recovery make.
Nevertheless, the fact that most of the economic signals contained in yesterday's announcements point in the same direction is cheering.
Some of the news is surprising, too. (If Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, can admit to having been 'surprised', then surely we mere mortals should be allowed the same emotion.)
Specifically, the fact that corporation tax receipts in July were so strong - up by more than a third on the level seen a year earlier - is striking. Economists seem puzzled by the sudden jump: there is no obvious explanation.
But whatever the reason, it is clearly helpful from the point of view of the public purse: there is now the real possibility that the government's deficit this year will be less than the £149bn that the Office for Budget Responsibility suggested only a few weeks ago.
Read more: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-1702186/Economy-view-Lets-keep-the-bubbly-on-ice.html#ixzz1dF4mPOrX
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