A nice birthday present for Rachel Reeves - but there's still anxiety

There will have been an awful lot of sighs of relief emitted in government when the figures dropped at 7am.

Yes, 0.1% growth is not exactly a bonanza of economic activity. But as far as the politics of this moment is concerned, it’s significantly better than the negative growth many expected.

It enables Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves to make an argument that after a difficult first few months in which they made some highly controversial economic decisions, things are beginning to turn, just about, in the right direction.

It is a nice birthday present for Reeves, who turns 46 today. But there is still significant anxiety in government about some of the difficult economic moments hurtling towards her.

On 26 March, the Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to downgrade its forecasts for the health of the UK economy over the coming years – this could well mean that the chancellor has to announce emergency spending cuts, which would not go down well with many Labour MPs.

And the Treasury is already engaged in tense negotiations with every cabinet ministers to set their departments’ budgets for the next several years.