The International Monetary Fund has uprated its inflation expectations for Britain. The cost of living killer…
The IMF’s World Economic Outlook has boosted its inflation forecast for 2026 from 3.2% to 3.3% since its last report in April. 2027 is worse – it predicts 2.8% inflation vs 2.4% six months ago. As Lenin said, the way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them down between the millstones of taxation and inflation…
Growth has also been downgraded for next year from 1.3% to 1.2% and the deficit in the same year at 3.2% vs 3.1%. Not a good direction of travel…
There are 15 days until John Healey’s first Budget. The IMF has said countries should not borrow or spend any more. Good luck…
In its latest global outlook the IMF has warned that there is “limited fiscal space” and borrowing costs already “elevated.” Paging Mr Burnham…
The international forecaster warned “domestic uncertainty” could hit the UK economy along with the Iran war could hit growth just as it upgraded its forecast for this year. Reeves will be handing that document about…
It also pointed to “a set of economic realities” that mean spending must go down as tax cannot go much higher without fundamental reform:
“These pressures could raise public spending by about 6 percent of GDP by 2050. Beyond the planned tax ratio increase until 2030, staff analysis suggests that the long-term scope for further revenue increases is becoming limited unless more fundamental tax reforms are envisaged.
Thus, the scale of rising spending pressures and limited tax space imply that a growing share of the adjustment will likely need to come from expenditure restraint in the longer term.
Deeper expenditure reforms could, for example, entail replacing the triple lock with a policy of indexing the state pension to the cost of living, improving the targeting of social benefits, as well as focusing more on preventative care, and expanding charges in the health system while protecting the vulnerable.”
Even the current ‘unambitious’ administration has pumped tax and spend to breaking point. And now the PLP has decided it wants a new PM who is “more Labour” in their policy approach…
The International Monetary Fund has downgraded the UK’s growth forecast by the G7. The IMF’s latest global forecasts have downgraded the UK’s growth projection for this year by 0.5% to only 0.8%…
| Country | 2026 Forecast | Diff. from Jan 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| UK | 0.8 | -0.5 |
| Germany | 0.8 | -0.3 |
| France | 0.9 | -0.1 |
| Italy | 0.5 | -0.2 |
| Japan | 0.7 | 0.0 |
| US | 2.3 | -0.1 |
| Canada | 2.5 | -0.1 |
“In the United Kingdom, inflation, which in 2025 increased partly because of one-off changes in regulated prices, is expected to pick up again temporarily toward 4 percent before returning to target by the end of 2027 as the effects of higher energy prices fade and a weakening labor market continues to exert downward pressure on wage growth.”
It also says the unemployment rate will hit 5.6% this year. Big gulps can be heard from the Treasury…
The International Monetary Fund has today released its World Economic Outlook report. It now predicts that the UK’s economic growth will be lower this year than last…
Since its last forecast in October the IMF has bumped up 2025’s growth by one point to 1.4% and says that this year will post 1.3% growth. Cheers for that Winter Budget, Rachel…
The IMF adds: “In the United Kingdom, inflation, which increased last year partly due to one-off regulated price changes, is expected to return to target by the end of 2026 as a weakening labour market continues to exert downward pressure on wage growth.” Destroying the labour market – that’s one way to bring inflation down…
There is still no sign of additional support for pubs or any other hospitality businesses for that matter. Downing Street is now saying it will be closer to the Spring Statement on 3 March…
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Rachel Reeves is whacking up taxes at the fastest pace of any G7 country. While the overall tax burden is not (yet) the highest in the bloc, the Chancellor is accelerating quicker than everyone else, including France, Germany and the United States. And she is now openly admitting it’s going to get worse…
British Government revenues are set to account for 40.6% of GDP by 2029, up from 38.3% when Reeves entered Number 11 last year. That’s around £65 billion added to the tax burden. A colossal rise…
Last year, Reeves promised her car-crash budget was a once-in-a-Parliament necessary evil. Now, not so much…
The International Monetary Fund has increased the UK’s GDP growth projections by only 0.1% since its last Economic Outlook report in April. When it warned of global economic doom from Trump’s tariffs…
In the July GDP Projections 2025’s growth is forecast at 1.2% and in 2026 1.4%. That is after Starmer’s trade deal with Trump. A 0.1% uplift for this year and no change for last year compared to April’s report…
Compare that to January’s projections of 1.6% for this year and 1.5% for next year. The report adds it expects the Bank of England to cut “around twice more this year after pausing to assess incoming data.” Sluggish…
Former Labour leader Neil Kinnock was asked if Burnham will take Britain back into the EU:
“Yes, sure – his commitment is authentic. He really does understand from the grassroots up why restoring what I think of as normality in our continent is vital for every party economically, politically, culturally, in terms of security, and he’s able to articulate it in language that people can understand. So yeah, he is definitely”.