UK economy to slow in 2011

It downgraded its forecast for the UK's GDP growth in 2011 from the 2.2% it predicted in September to 1.9% now, the BBC reports. The BCC blamed the downwards revision on the eurozone debt crisis, austerity cuts, weak housing market and VAT rise from 17.5% to 20%. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) recently downgraded its 2011 growth forecast from 2.3% to 2.1%. But the BCC was even more bearish, suggesting year-on-year growth will slow from 3% in the final quarter of 2010 to 1.4% in the second half of next year. But it said the economy was sufficiently robust to avoid sli...