CBI cuts growth forecast and warns of job losses
The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has cut its forecast for economic growth this year and warned that 50,000 more jobs will be lost because of the global slowdown and foot-and-mouth disease.
The CBI will say today that it expects gross domestic product to rise 2% in 2001, a downward revision from 2.5% and less than the long-run rate of output growth.
The lower growth forecast - also less than projected by the Bank of England and the Treasury - is the work of the CBI's economic team, headed by Kate Barker, who is to join the Banks' monetary policy committee in June.
Unusually, and in a deliberate omission, Barker was not quoted in the CBI's accompanying statement.
