LONDON: Britain on Wednesday halved its economic growth forecast for 2013, finance minister George Osborne revealed in his annual budget.
Gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to grow by just 0.6 percent this year, which was half the previous forecast of 1.2 percent, according to estimates issued by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Economic growth guidance for 2014 was also cut to 1.8 percent from the previous estimate of 2.0 percent that was given in December.
The economy was then expected to grow by 2.3 percent in 2015, 2.7 percent in 2016 and 2.8 percent in 2017. Those OBR estimates were unchanged from previous figures.
Osborne added that Britain was on course to avoid sinking into a so-called triple dip recession, after contracting by 0.3 percent in the final three months of 2012.
The OBR predicted that the economy would avoid a second successive quarter of negative growth in the first three months of 2013. The technical definition of a recession is two successive quarters of contraction.
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