Britain raised its official growth forecasts slightly on Wednesday as finance minister George Osborne announced an annual budget statement.
Growth for 2015 was forecast to be 2.5 percent, up from a forecast of 2.4 percent made in December, Osborne told parliament.
Growth in 2016 is now expected to reach 2.3 percent compared with 2.2 percent in the December forecasts made by Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility.
Osborne said the OBR believed growth would hold at 2.3 percent in 2017 and 2018 before rising to 2.4 percent in 2019.
The Bank of England has predicted Britain’s economy will grow 2.9 percent this year and in 2016, helped by the plunge in oil prices that is expected to boost consumption.
The OBR also forecast the unemployment rate would fall to 5.3 percent this year, down from 5.7 percent in the three months to January, Osborne said.
via Reuters
Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.