george osbourne is going to update today. the chancellor will have his work cut out to meet his target of eradicating the federal deficit by 2015 as well as securing a fall to gdp ratio. also expected further pressure with a cut to its growth forecast. steve is braving rather inclement british winter weather outside the houses of parliament. >> lovely. >> i know you like it. how much is it going to be raining on george osbourne's parade? >> it's going to rain on his parade. you just nailed it, ross. three things which are going to come up today, which he has very little control over. one is that obr reckoning on the uk economy. thought only back in march it was going to grow -- pain a negative growth for the year. next year they thought it was going to be 2% growth. it's probably only going to be 1%. in terms of those two targets you mentioned, eradicating the structural deficit in a five-year period, that's going to have another couple of years. >> right. now, there we go. you can see jim there in egypt. i wonder whether we

the british chancellor george osbourne has defended the government's plan to turn the economy aroundein in spending. >> we have to get control on spending. that's why i'm operating benefits by less than the rate of inflation. that's why i've curbed the tax relief for the largest pensions. but we are making progress. the can deficit is down by 25%. forecasts are continued to fall, so we are making progress. we started with a very large deficit, but we're getting it down. >>> still to come, we'll talk citigroup with a guest who says yesterday's massive job cuts announcement may be the opening of a wave of cost cuts for the banking giant. i always wait until the last minute. can i still ship a gift in time for christmas? yeah, sure you can. great. where's your gift? uh... whew. [ male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express [ maby december 22nd break from the holiday stress. for christmas delivery. >>> ftse just up nine points. xetra dax up nearly a percent. ibex up a third. ex-take trake xetra dax up to 5 highs. elsewhere in the european corporate sector, investor

talking about the uk, george osbourne says there's no turning back on austerity just days ahead of his annual statement. he continues to resist opposition calls warning that lack of budget discipline would have serious consequences for the british economy. >> going back on our commitment to deal with our debt would be a complete catastrophe for britain and would put us into the place where some european compauntrie are at the moment. >> adam is with us for the remainder of this section of the show. is he broadly right with that statement? >> no, he's not. the chance lar let's not go through the past, but let's look at the present. the tactics they're taking are throwing growth and revenues. and so the extent of austerity and form is swlf defeating. more overthe markets are not going to make the uk into greece. they're responding to growth news. and whether it's the u.s. fiscal cliff, people negotiating in greece, or in the uk when finance ministers say, oh, there's a catastrophe around the corner, there usually isn't. and saying that makes things worse. one can't deny there could be a

. >> still ahead, we have the british chancellor of the ex-checker george osbourne and gillian tett.s. we'll be right back. that's a cool smartphone. yeah. and you can get it with virgin mobile's plan. $35 a month with unlimited data and messaging included. with all the web surfing i want? yep. sounds like a data buffet. an all-you-can-eat data buffet. you know who would love our all-you-can-eat-data buffet? big lucy. big lucy! are you hungry? for all the data. [ male announcer ] get the season's hottest smartphones, like the kyocera rise. and get virgin mobile, with unlimited data and messaging included, for just $35 a month. from america's gift headquarters. walmart >>> coming up, dork fest. >> this guy, is number one the on the "new york times" best seller list a couple weeks ago. he's a pulitzer prize-winning historian. >> he's back from "jeopardy." >> he's number one. it's an extraordinary book. "killing jefferson." by the way shgts i have no idea where you came up with that series idea. it's he killer. [ male announcer ] this is bob, a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. t

george osbourne will be delivering his autumn statement where he's probably going to say growth isn't strong enough so we're going to not really meet our budget targets as well. all these things coming into play at the moment as we wait for the u.s. session. we did have a good piece of news, though, out of china. the new leadership saying wle do whatever it takes to maintain solid economic growth. the shanghai composite up nearly 3% today. that boosted retail stocks. we also had a spanish bond auction, prefunding for 2013. got nearly the 4.5 billion they wanted. yields in spain. the ten-year did come lower on that auction, so not a bad result. and bid to cover was okay. so spanish yields slightly higher after that. didn't raise the maximum amount. that's where we stand. it's another cautious day under way in europe. back to you guys. >> might get my haircut like hers, ross. you know, that anna wintour. that bizarre -- do you think you can manage it? >> a page boy. >> you think you carry that one? >> you'd look awful. >> you know what? we're going to do it. >> you're asking these guys