IMF: UK economic growth to reach 2.9% in

Olivier Blanchard from the IMF said it was clear that their forecasts had been "too pessimistic"

It says the UK will grow 2.9% in 2014, up from a January estimate of 2.4%, and will see growth of 2.5% in 2015.

Overall, the IMF says the global economy strengthened at the end of 2013. It forecasts global growth of 3.6% this year and 3.9% in 2015.

But it sees risks in emerging markets and warns of low inflation in advanced economies and geopolitical issues.

The predictions come in the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook, its bi-annual analysis and projections of economic developments.

Global economy

The IMF said the US had seen stronger economic growth as Washington's debt and deficit cleared and predicted the country's economy would grow by 2.8% in 2014 and 3% next year.

But it scaled back its January growth forecast for emerging and developing nations, including India and Brazil, by 0.2 percentage points.

The IMF said the economies were hit as investors were more sensitive to policy weakness, with monetary policy being normalised in some advanced economies.

China's economic growth would be 7.5% for 2014 and 7.3% next year, it said, as it expected authorities in China to rein in their "rapid credit growth".

The IMF said India, South Korea and Indonesia should benefit from an improved export environment, but noted Thailand's prospects would be hit by political instability.

Russia's growth forecast was cut by 0.6 percentage points to 1.3% for the rest of 2014, because of "emerging market financial turbulence and geopolitical tensions relating to Ukraine... on the back of already weak activity", the IMF said.

Meanwhile, it said recovery of Europe's emerging economies would slow in 2014 and would also be hampered by any escalation of the situation in Ukraine.

Emerging Europe's forecast was revised down by 0.35 points to 2.4%.

Last week, the IMF's head warned that the global economy could be heading for years of "sub-par growth".

Christine Lagarde warned that without "brave action", the world could fall into a "low growth trap".

She said the global economy would grow by more than 3% this year and next, but that market volatility and tensions in Ukraine posed risks.

Ms Lagarde also urged more action to tackle low inflation in the eurozone.