London share prices started lower on Tuesday, following market declines in the US and Asia and a dispiriting forecast that the UK economy will underperform all its peers this year.
The two-day US Federal Open Market Committee policy meeting begins on Tuesday. The Federal Reserve will announce its latest interest rate decision on Wednesday. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank will follow with policy decisions on Thursday.
The FTSE 100 index opened down 38.90 points, 0.5%, at 7,745.97. The FTSE 250 was down 64.24 points, 0.3%, at 19,872.96, and the AIM All-Share was down 2.07 points, 0.2%, at 867.09.
The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.5% at 775.13, and the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.3% at 17,363.75. The Cboe Small Companies was flat at 14,124.20.
The IMF warned that the UK’s economy will shrink this year, meaning the UK will see the worst performance of all advanced nations.
In its latest World Economic Outlook update, the IMF downgraded its UK gross domestic product forecast once again, predicting a contraction of 0.6% against the 0.3% growth pencilled in last October…
