1 IMF warns of hit to UK growth (Andrew Walker on
BBC) The International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for UK economic
growth next year as it warned that the global recovery remains "weak and
precarious". Although the IMF raised its prediction for UK GDP growth this
year to 1.8%, the figure for 2017 was cut to 1.1%.
Its assumptions are based on "smooth
post-Brexit negotiations and a limited increase in economic barriers". The
IMF's latest World Economic Outlook predicts "subpar" global growth
this year of 3.1%, rising slightly in 2017.
A fall in US growth this year to 1.6%, down from the
previous 2.2% forecast, will be offset by increases in countries including
Japan, Germany and Russia and India, the IMF said.Economists for Brexit, a
group of eight influential economists which supported the Leave campaign ahead
of the EU referendum, criticised the IMF's forecasts arguing their pre-Brexit
forecasts had already been proven wrong.
Weak growth can lead to lower investment, slower
productivity growth and the erosion of what the IMF calls "human
capital" - which means skills and expertise.
2 Pound hits 31-year low (Khaleej Times) Sterling
slid to its lowest in more than three decades on Tuesday on fears of a
"hard Brexit" from the European Union and its single market that
could hurt the economy, although the weaker pound sent UK stocks surging.
The pound has already lost 1.7 per cent against the
US dollar since Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday the formal process to
take Britain out of the EU will start by the end of March 2017. On Tuesday, she
added the divorce from the EU will not be "plain sailing" and that
there would be "bumps in the road".
Economic activity has held up better than many had
expected since Britons voted in a June referendum to leave the EU, but many
policymakers are anxious about the prospects for future investment. The Bank of
England launched a big stimulus package in August and may ease policy again in
coming months, which could drag the pound still lower.
3 The great Pacific garbage patch (Oliver Milman in
The Guardian) The vast patch of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean is far
worse than previously thought, with an aerial survey finding a much larger mass
of fishing nets, plastic containers and other discarded items than imagined.
A reconnaissance flight taken in a modified C-130
Hercules aircraft found a vast clump of mainly plastic waste at the northern
edge of what is known as the “great Pacific garbage patch”, located between
Hawaii and California.
The density of rubbish was several times higher than
the Ocean Cleanup, a foundation part-funded by the Dutch government to rid the
oceans of plastics, expected to find even at the heart of the patch, where most
of the waste is concentrated.
The heart of the garbage patch is thought to be
around 1m sq km (386,000 sq miles), with the periphery spanning a further 3.5m
sq km (1,351,000 sq miles). The dimensions of this morass of waste are
continually morphing, caught in one of the ocean’s huge rotating currents. The
north Pacific gyre has accumulated a soup of plastic waste, including large
items and smaller broken-down micro plastics that can be eaten by fish and
enter the food chain.
The full scale of plastic pollution was revealed in
2014, when a study found there were more than 5tn pieces of plastic floating in
our oceans. In 2014, 311m tonnes of plastic were produced around the world, a
20-fold increase since 1964. It is expected to quadruple again by mid-century.
A report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation earlier
this year predicted there would be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050
unless urgent action was taken.
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