DHAKA: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut its forecast for UK economic growth next year as it warned that the global recovery remains “weak and precarious”.

Although the IMF raised its prediction for UK GDP growth this year to 1.8%, the figure for 2017 was cut to 1.1%, reports the BBC.

Its assumptions are based on “smooth post-Brexit negotiations and a limited increase in economic barriers”.

The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook predicts “subpar” global growth this year of 3.1%, rising slightly in 2017.

Chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said: “Taken as a whole, the world economy has moved sideways. Without determined policy action to support economic activity over the short and longer terms, sub-par growth at recent levels risks perpetuating itself”.

A fall in US growth this year to 1.6%, down from the previous 2.2% forecast, will be offset by increases in countries including Japan, Germany and Russia and India, the IMF said.

Economists for Brexit, a group of eight influential economists which supported the Leave campaign ahead of the EU referendum, criticized the IMF’s forecasts arguing their pre-Brexit forecasts had already been proven wrong.

“The IMF, together with countless other institutions, forecasted a state of Armageddon which hasn’t even come close to materializing in the UK,” said Graeme Leach, member of Economists for Brexit and chief executive of Macronomics.

He added: “The UK economy seems to be strengthening, not weakening. Just today, construction PMI was positive, ahead of many gloomy forecasts”.

BDST: 1048 HRS, OCT 05, 2016
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