IMF上调英国2014年经济增速预期

Now you may not have realized this, but 2014 is going to be a big year, a watershed year for Britain's economy. Let me show you why.

This is the picture of the UK since the start of the recession. This is economic growth. You can see the big dip that happened in 2008. But just look at how slow the recovery has been since then. Right now we are still below the pre-crisis peak. The economy is still smaller. But look at what will happen when you include some of the forecasts for this year. Now this is what the IMF expected to happen when its last updated forecast back in October, 1.9% growth this year. And now we've learned that the Fund will upgrade that to a far more respectful 2.4% growth. But the majority of other forecasts think it will be even stronger, chunky 2.7% growth for the independent forecast. Now under all of these scenarios, the important thing is, this year finally the UK economy, the size of the economy is back to the size of it was, back to 2008. But note, under the IMF's new forecast, it really kind of bursts throughout that line as opposed to just creeping above it. Now this isn't the only piece of good news we've had recently. UK sales last month, they were up 5.3% on an annul basis, that was the strongest numbers in almost a decade. And house prices, they are up by 5.4% in the year to November, though some are worried that the Chancellor's Help to Buy scheme may risk creating a bubble,and some are worried that good as this growth is, it still relies on emergency measures.