It had its 2013 forecast upgraded to 1.6% from 1.2%.
Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) In fact the biggest forecast upgrade of all by the OECD today was Greece.
The forecast upgrade followed the latest official jobs data showing the unemployment rate was 6.8% in the three months to March.
India was the only economy to be judged by the organisation as likely to grow quicker, with its forecast upgraded to 5.7% from 4.9% after voting in a new government that said it would pursue growth-oriented reforms and progress in containing inflation.
In May 2013 the wonks reckoned that the British economy would grow by 1.5% in 2014: that forecast was upgraded to 1.8% in October and by another 0.6% today.
Instead, BGI postulates that what drives share prices are changes in profit forecasts, ie, upgrades or downgrades, and, crucially, those made by certain analysts more than others.
Still, both those forecasts are upgrades from July, following a debt crisis that began in Greece and had threatened to widen throughout Europe.
* Funds to be used for forecasts, radar upgrade.
According to Citigroup, downgrades of earnings forecasts are outpacing upgrades by a ratio of three to two.
As a result of the investigation, agency officials have now asked Congress permission to redirect some $36 million in spending in the 2012 budget to local weather forecasting and equipment upgrades, Scott Smullen, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAAA), said on Tuesday.
Once quarterly numbers are published the statisticians rush into print, e-mails flying, as everyone upgrades his forecast for the next quarter and for the following fiscal year.
