Who would want to be George Osborne today?

Cutting Britain’s deficit and encouraging economic growth have proven to be more difficult than expected.

And while it’s unclear to what extent the failure of the eurozone is holding Britain back, there’s no doubt that turmoil in the EU is a major danger to the UK.

Dire predictions about countries like Greece or Italy defaulting, or the contagion taking hold in Spain or France, have not yet come true – although Spain does look fragile.

However, uncertainty about the economic future of our major trading partners has understandably made British businesses more cautious.

If the worst does happen on the Continent, there is little any government could do to prevent the UK economy being affected.

It’s important to remember that the country is not in a recession, although that word is bandied around. The economy is growing, albeit more slowly than many people would like.

But Mr Osborne faces two major challenges. The first is to get unemployment down, and the second is to reduce Britain’s deficit to the extent that the nation feels the pain has been worth it – and perhaps even to hold out the hope that taxes may be cut, to offset the fall in living standards so many working people have experienced.

He must do this while maintaining confidence in the UK economy on markets worldwide. As things stand, the interest rate on UK government bonds – effectively the price Britain must pay to borrow – is relatively low. By contrast, governments in Portugal, Ireland, Italy or Spain need to pay much higher rates of interest in order to borrow.