The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised down its 2017 growth forecast for Britain, its first downgrade for the country since the aftermath of the Brexit vote held last year.
In an update of its World Economic Outlook on Monday, the IMF said that the growth will slow to 1.7 percent this year from 1.8 percent that was in 2016. The monetary organization said the 2018 forecast will remain unchanged at 1.5 percent.
The IMF had predicted in April that the UK economy would grow at 2.0 percent, after the economy withstood the initial shock of the Brexit referendum.
The IMF said its downgrade reflected Britain’s weaker-than-expected growth at the start of the year.
“The ultimate impact of Brexit on the United Kingdom remains unclear,” the Fund’s chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said.
In response to the IMF report, the British Treasury claimed that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong.”
But it stated that the IMF forecast “underscores…