LONDON (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that it had cut its forecast for British economic growth this year due to disruptions from the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and supply constraints, but raised its estimate for growth in 2023.
The IMF said it now expected British gross domestic product would expand by 4.7% in 2022 and by 2.3% in 2023, compared with its previous forecasts – made in October – of 5.0% and 1.9%.
The new forecasts were made in an update of the IMF’s World Economic Outlook. The cut to Britain’s expected growth rate in 2022 was the smallest among the Group of Seven economies with the exception of Japan.
“In the United Kingdom, disruptions related to Omicron and supply constraints – particularly in labour and energy markets – mean that growth is revised down,” the IMF said.
(Writing by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken)
