LONDON (Dispatches) - The International Monetary Fund says Britain faces a “sobering” economic outlook for 2023, according to a brief statement published by the British parliament’s Treasury Select Committee on Thursday.
“The outlook for the UK economy is sobering: for 2023, output is expected to contract and inflation to remain elevated,” the IMF said.
Over the past months, Britain has been hit by back-to-back strikes over low wages and working conditions amid rising inflation and a cost-of-living crisis.
More than 70,000 staff at 150 universities across the UK will strike for 18 days between February and March in disputes over pay, conditions and pensions, it was announced Thursday.
The University and College Union (UCU) said the precise dates of the action will be confirmed next week.
The union will also re-ballot staff at all 150 universities to renew its mandate and allow industrial action to be called well into 2023, including a marking and assessment boycott from April, unless the disputes are settled.
The UCU said “the clock is ticking” for university bosses to avoid widespread disruption this year.
The union is demanding a meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost of living crisis as well as action to end the use of “insecure” contracts.
The union said the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, which represents university employers, made the UCU a pay offer worth between 4% and 5% on Wednesday, which the union said was not enough.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Today our union came together to back an unprecedented program of escalating strike action. The clock is now ticking for the sector to produce a deal or be hit with widespread disruption throughout spring.”
The Conservative government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said it believes the UK economy has entered a recession on fallout from sky-high inflation.
While it repeatedly blames this

on the Ukraine war fuelling energy prices, analysts claim Brexit has also pushed up costs.
Bank of England monetary policy committee member Swati Dhingra recently told MPs that Brexit was to blame for “a much bigger slowdown in trade in the UK compared to the rest of the world”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan in a speech Thursday urged the government to end a “vow of silence” on the “immense damage” to the UK economy caused by Brexit.
Khan, an opposition Labour politician, said that “trying to will Brexit into a success, or simply ignoring its impact, is not a strategy that will deliver prosperity for London or a brighter future for Britain”.
Two years after Britain’s departure from the European Union, it is widely acknowledged that UK businesses are reeling from the cost of Brexit, including some who voted to cut ties with Brussels.
Khan’s speech said that “ministers seem to have developed selective amnesia when it comes to one of the root causes of our problems.
“Brexit can’t be airbrushed out of history or the consequences wished away,” he added.