U.K. to Grow Less Than Previously Forecast, Item Club to Say

Ernst & Young LLP’s Item Club will cut its U.K. economic growth forecasts for the second time this year as weak consumer spending and Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis cloud the outlook for the recovery.

Gross domestic product will increase 1.4 percent in 2011, compared with an April projection of 1.8 percent, the London-based Item Club, which uses the same forecasting model as the U.K. Treasury, will say in a report to be published in London tomorrow. It will rise 2.2 percent in 2012, instead of 2.3 percent. The Item Club also reduced its forecasts in April.