IMF Upgrades UK Growth Forecast to 2.4 Percent

The International Monetary Fund is widely expected to raise its outlook for the UK this week, nudging up the country’s growth forecasts by more than for any other major economy.

The Washington-based fund is due to unveil an update on Tuesday to its World Economic Outlook from last October. Back then it forecast UK national output would rise 1.9% in 2014. Now it is expected to predict growth of 2.4%, according to a Sky News report.

The IMF is also expected to upgrade its outlook for the global economy, which in October it predicted as expanding by 3.6% this year. That would reflect the cautiously optimistic tone in a New Year’s speech from its managing director, Christine Lagarde, last week.

“This crisis still lingers. Yet, optimism is in the air: the deep freeze is behind, and the horizon is brighter. My great hope is that 2014 will prove momentous … the year in which the seven weak years, economically speaking, slide into seven strong years,” she said.

If confirmed, the substantial upgrade to the UK will be a welcome boost to Chancellor George Osborne and his much repeated assertion that the coalition’s “economic plan is working”.

But in the past the IMF has echoed other economists, including experts at the UK’s own Office for Budget Responsibility, that the UK remains over-dependent on consumer spending to grow.

via The Guardian

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