LONDON, Nov 27: The British economy will grow at a rate of 1.6 per cent this year and within a range of 2.5 to 3.0 per cent next year, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown told parliament on Wednesday, cutting his official forecasts.

Brown, who was delivering his annual mini budget, the pre-Budget report, had in April forecast economic growth of between 2.0 and 2.5pc this year, picking up to between 3.0 and 3.5pc in 2003. But the chancellor argued that the British economy had in fact grown at a more rapid rate than any of the world’s other major economies last year.—AFP