Britain slashed its 2011 economic growth forecast to 2.6%, and cut its annual public borrowing estimate to £155 billion sterling, in the new government's first official data today.
The growth figure, published by an independent fiscal watchdog set up by British Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition administration, compared with the 3.25% expansion which had been forecast by the previous government.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said that UK gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to grow by 1.3% in 2010, which marked a slight upward revision.
The state borrowing forecast compared with the previous estimate of £163 billion for the current 2010/2011 financial year which covers the 12 months to April 2011.
The new forecasts were published ahead of an emergency budget on June 22 due from British finance minister George Osborne.
Osborne's emergency budget is expected to unveil deep spending cuts and large taxation rises, as the coalition seeks to slash a public deficit which hit a record £156 billion in the 2009/2010 fiscal year.
The OBR also forecast that GDP will expand by 2.8% in 2012, followed by growth of 2.8% and 2.6% in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The new forecasts do not include the impact of measures recently introduced by Cameron's Conservative-Liberal Democrat government, which last month ousted the previous Labour administration that was led by Gordon Brown.
The coalition has already axed £6.25 billion of 'wasteful' public sector spending in May as it sought to cut the deficit. At the same time, Osborne set up the independent OBR to publish the government's official economic forecasts.
