In his Budget speech, he was even more optimistic for 2011, saying there would be growth of between 3% and 3.5%.
Darling added that the right calls were made over the Government’s handling of the recession and financial crisis.
He said that due to the decisions which the Government had taken, public debt will be £11bn lower than expected for 2010/11 at £167bn and public borrowing will fall to £74bn by 2014/15.
The total budget deficit will be 11.8% of GDP in 2010/11, dropping to 11.1% next year and to 4% in 2014/15.
Catherine Penman, head of research at Carter Jonas, said she felt the 2010 and 2011 figures were unrealistic and optimistic.
She added: “It was an announcement to appease people in advance of the General Election and I can see him revising these figures downwards. Retail spending is going down and we are potentially talking about further injections of quantitative easing into the economy.”
