UK economy to grow a bit more

LONDON: Britain's sluggish economy will grow slightly more quickly than previously thought this year in the run-up to Brexit, lowering the government´s expected borrowing, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Tuesday.

Hammond, delivering a half-yearly update on the public finances, said Britain´s budget forecasters expect the economy to grow by 1.5 percent in 2018, up a touch from a forecast of 1.4 percent in November.

Growth forecasts in 2019 and 2020 were kept unchanged at 1.3 percent, Hammond told parliament, citing figures from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

The world´s sixth-biggest economy would grow a bit more slowly than previously thought in the following two years, by 1.4 and 1.5 percent respectively in 2021 and 2022. Britain´s economy has slowed sharply since the vote in June 2016 to leave the European Union.