The UK and U.S. economies will expand more slowly in 2017 than previously predicted, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), BBC News reports.

It said "weaker-than-expected activity" in the first three months of the year meant the UK would grow by 1.7%, compared with an earlier 2% forecast.

And the IMF revised down its U.S. outlook from 2.3% to 2.1%.

However, its overall global economic predictions - of 3.5% growth in 2017 and 3.6% in 2018 - remain unchanged.

Meanwhile the outlook for several eurozone economies is brighter than initially thought, with countries including France, Germany, Italy and Spain seeing growth forecasts revised up.

In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF said the "pick-up in global growth" that it had anticipated in its previous survey in April remained "on track".

But it added that while the global growth projection was unchanged that masked "somewhat different contributions at the country level".