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Monday 24 July 2017

IMF downgrades US and UK growth per BBC News

This BBC report http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40697473 starts thus:

'The UK and US economies will expand more slowly in 2017 than previously predicted, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

It said "weaker-than-expected activity" in the first three months of the year meant the UK would grow by 1.7%, compared with an earlier 2% forecast.

And the IMF revised down its US outlook from 2.3% to 2.1%.

However, its overall global economic predictions - of 3.5% growth in 2017 and 3.6% in 2018 - remain unchanged.

Meanwhile the outlook for several eurozone economies is brighter than initially thought, with countries including France, Germany, Italy and Spain seeing growth forecasts revised up.'

That's the BBC narrative: post Brexit UK economy down, post Trump US economy down and EU doing better so the UK should reverse its decision to Brexit. Did you spot that the EU section has no comparative figures? Well if you read on much further down the article then you'll find this sentence hidden away from the casual reader.

'The euro area as a whole is expected to grow by 1.9% this year, up from 1.7%.'

Now why would the pro EU / anti Brexit hide those figures where the majority of readers of that article wouldn't see it? Can we trust the predictions of the pro EU / anti Brexit IMF anyway?

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