It added that the risk of further deterioration² in the economic outlook was "considerable" and had increased.

 

The IMF downgraded its estimate for global growth in 2013 to 3.6% from the 3.9% it forecast in July.

 

One of the biggest downgrades was to the UK economy, which the IMF expects to shrink by 0.4% this year.

 

This compares with its forecast of 0.2% growth in July. Next year, the UK economy should grow by 1.1%, the IMF said, down from its previous forecast of 1.4%.

 

In response to the downgrade, the UK Treasury³ highlighted the fact that the IMF had "repeated its advice that the first line of defence against [slowing growth] should be to allow the automatic stabilisers to operate, monetary policy easing and measures to ease the flow of credit - all of which the UK is doing". 

 

The fund's forecast for global growth this year has been lowered to 3.3% from 3.5%.

 

Olivier Blanchard, the IMF's chief economist⁴, said the slowdown was being led by problems within the developed countries: "Low growth in advanced economies is affecting emerging and developing economies through exports." 

 

 

David Cameron, defended the UK's economic strategy, saying the job would take some time.

 

"What is happening is a rebalancing of our economy. We have created a million net new jobs [and] we are now a net exporter of cars," he told the BBC.

 

"But it is a slow process."

 

The markdown for the UK's prospects⁶ comes despite recent data that has pointed⁷ to a return to growth.

 

However, Martin Beck, from Capital Economics, said that was mainly due to a recovery from the effects of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations on the economy. 

 

"Recent data had actually been been quite promising⁸ - industrial output and exports increased quite substantially - but that largely reflected the fact that June was a bad month because of the Jubilee disruption and the extra bank holiday we had then," he told the BBC. 

 

"We've got a positive growth rate for the third quarter but we expect another contraction⁹ in the fourth quarter."

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