UK Fiscal Watchdog Downgrades UK Growth Forecast to 2%

The U.K’s fiscal watchdog has slashed growth and productivity forecasts for the country as the outlook for the world economy now appears to be “materially weaker” than it did in its last outlook in November last year.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) downgraded its forecast for U.K. growth to 2 percent in 2016, from a projection of 2.4 percent in November.

U.K. finance minister George Osborne revealed the weaker than expected figures as he set out the borrowing and spending plans to the U.K. parliament.

“Financial markets are turbulent. Productivity growth across the West is too low. And the outlook for the global economy is weak. It makes for a dangerous cocktail of risk,” Osborne warned.

Gross domestic product growth will edge higher to 2.2 percent in 2017 and then 2.1 percent in the three years after that according to OBR data.

“The OBR have revised down growth in the world economy and in world trade. In their words, the outlook is “materially weaker,” Osborne said in his budget address.

via CNBC

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