Will the Government follow the IMF?

The Tories tried to make political capital out of the International Monetary Fund’s latest growth forecasts in today’s PMQs.  You can see them on page 2 of this pdf.  What’s so significant about them?  Well, they’re pretty gloomy for starters – they put the UK’s economic growth at only 1.0 percent for 2008, and -0.1 percent for 2009.  And they’re also the most signficant growth predictions made since the financial crisis really blew up a few weeks ago, meaning they’re more likely than most to account for just how bad things are.  Indeed, the 2008 figure is down by 0.8 percent on the forecast made in the IMF’s last World Economic Outlook document; the 2009 figure down by a hefty 1.8 percent.  That latter readjustment is the biggest negative change among any of the “advanced economies” – so much for Brown’s claim that we’re better-placed than other countries to withstand the credit crunch.