His budget envisages a slowdown in the rate at which government grows rather than a reduction in its absolute size.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

If it doubled in absolute size over the next year it would directly contribute just under 2.5 percentage points to GDP growth.

FORBES: Connect

We are not only unclear about the absolute size of this liability, but also the identity of the owners, as most of these trades are private or over-the-counter.

FORBES: Briefing Book: A. Michael Lipper

He points out that the interest bite is only half the level of 20 years ago despite a rise in the absolute size of the debt.

FORBES: The Hidden Costs of Health Entitlements are Growing at Triple the Rate of Health Entitlements

All this is plausible, but some analysts argue that the absolute size of a company's research budget matters less than how and where it is deployed.

ECONOMIST: Drug mergers

What matters is the absolute change in the size of the sector.

FORBES: Connect

In fact there are many countries with worse debt burdens, both in absolute terms and relative to the size of the economy.

BBC: Argentina faces grim economic future

According to the government's own bovine-tb-impact-assessment, the public costs of carrying out the cull exceed any money saved from predicted falls in bovine TB (an average 16% reduction in new cases over nine years - in absolute figures, this amounts to preventing 47 out of 292 infected herds, for an area about half the size of the Gloucestershire pilot zone).

BBC: Analysis: The battle over brock