UK growth second-worst in the G20 after Russia, predicts OECD

THE UK will be the only major economy except Russia to shrink this year, according to forecasts.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that Britain’s gross domestic product (GDP) will fall by 0.2pc in 2023 – the second-worst performance in the G20 group of countries after Russia’s estimated decline of 2.5pc.

It means the UK is the only member of the G7 group of advanced economies, which also includes the US, Japan, Germany, Canada, France and Italy, to suffer a shrinkage this year.

The second-worst performer in the group was Germany, which the OECD estimates will grow its economy by just 0.3pc this year.

The decline for the UK was better than previously estimated in November, when the OECD projected a 0.4pc fall. Britain’s oddman-out status in the G7 is a blow to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt as he sought to revive growth in his Budget earlier this week.

But the OECD’s data was compiled before Hunt delivered his spending plans, meaning that the UK’s economic outlook could change again once his policies begin to kick in.

Economist Julian Jessop said the OECD’s forecasts should be taken with a ‘fistful of salt’. The predictions did not account for the measures unveiled in the Budget, which Jessop said could ‘tip a negative into a positive.’ He also accused the OECD of ‘the usual institutional bias against the UK because of Brexit’.