Business this week

The IMF warned that Britain’s decision in a referendum to leave the European Union had thrown a “spanner in the works”, causing widespread economic and financial uncertainty that is still unfolding. It slightly reduced its expectations for global growth this year and next, but slashed its forecast for Britain to 1.3% for 2017, from the 2.2% it had projected in April. The fund said the effects of Brexit would be felt mostly in Europe (it cut its estimate of German GDP growth next year to 1.2%) and that there would be a “relatively muted impact elsewhere”.