LONDON: The International Monetary Fund has revised up its UK growth forecast for the second time in three months after admitting that the performance of the economy since the Brexit vote last year had been stronger than expected. In its half-yearly World Economic Outlook, the IMF said it now envisaged the British economy expanding by 2% in 2017 – making it the second fastest-growing advanced economy after the US.. It noted that growth had “remained solid in the United Kingdom, where spending proved resilient in the aftermath of the June 2016 referendum in favour of leaving the European Union [Brexit]”.
The IMF said it was becoming more optimistic about the prospects for the global economy – expected to expand by 3.5% in 2017 and 3.6% in 2018 – but issued a renewed attack on the protectionist policies championed by Donald Trump and Marine Le Pen. “The global economy seems to be gaining momentum – we could be at a turning point,” said Maurice Obstfeld, the IMF’s economic counsellor. “But even as things look up, the post–world war two system of international economic relations is under severe strain despite the aggregate benefits it has delivered – and precisely because growth and the resulting economic adjustments have too often entailed unequal rewards and costs within countries.”
