The government’s independent economic watchdog will tear up its previous forecasts for the UK’s growth prospects as it gives its first official verdict on the outlook for post-Brexit Britain this week. The Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to paint a gloomy picture of lower growth, higher inflation and a larger-than-expected deficit as the UK negotiates its way out of the EU. Growth forecasts at the time of the budget in March – two months before the shock referendum outcome – will be revised down for 2017 from 2.2% to between 1.25% and 1.5% according to the forecasting group EY Item Club. The International Monetary Fund is forecasting UK growth of just 1.1% next year, which would be the lowest rate of annual growth since 2009 when the economy shrank by 4.3% in the depths of the financial crisis. The IMF believes the UK will be the fastest growing of the G7 leading industrial countries in 2016, with growth of 1.8%.

Source: The Guardian November 20, 2016 17:37 UTC