Autumn Forecasts: 2016 U.K. GDP growth is upgraded

The U.K. Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) released its Autumn Forecasts on Wednesday. The U.K. economy is expected to expand 2.4% in 2015, remained unchanged, and 2.4% in 2016, up from its previous forecast of 2.3% growth.

The U.K. economy is expected to grow at 2.5% in 2017, up from its previous forecast of 2.4%, at 2.4% in 2018, at 2.3% in 2019 and 2020.

The debt ratio for this year was downgraded to 82.5% of GDP from July forecast of 83.6%. The debt ratio is expected to be 79.9% in 2017-18, and 71.3% in 2020-21.

The U.K. budget deficit is expected to be 3.9% of GDP in 2015, 2.5% in 2016, 1.2% in 2017-18, declining to 0.2% in the year after, and turning into a surplus of 0.5% in 2019-20, while increasing to 0.6% in the following year.

The U.K. Chancellor George Osborne said in the Autumn Statement on Wednesday that global growth and global trade outlook were revised down.

"I can tell the House that in today's forecast, the expectations for world growth and world trade have been revised down again. The weakness of the euro zone remains a persistent problem; there are rising concerns about debt in emerging economies," he said.

Osborne noted that the government's debt will decline.

"We promised to bring our debts down. Today, the forecast I present shows that after the longest period of rising debt in our modern history, this year our debt will fall and keep falling in every year that follows," he said.