Woodford shoots down Chancellor's growth forecast

Neil Woodford, Invesco Perpetual's star income fund manager, says George Osborne's UK growth forecasts are too optimistic and expects growth to remain lower for longer.

Woodford, running the £10.3bn Invesco Perpetual High Income and £8bn Income funds, says the economy is likely to struggle for longer than anticipated because of the austerity measures, and as such he questioned the recent OBR growth forecast for 2011 of 1.7%. He says: "The economy background is very challenging at the moment and is likely to remain so for some time. "Therefore I do not see growth coming through as the Chancellor has forecast." He says valuation expectations look over-extended for some stocks, and only 25% of revenues of his portfolios come from the UK. He adds e...