THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) is tomorrow expected to raise its forecast for UK growth this year, which many will interpret as another sign Britain's economy is slowly recovering.

If the global finance watchdog ups its 2013 forecast for Britain from 0.7% to 1%, this would be a significant about-turn on just two months ago.

Then, Olivier Blanchard, its chief economist, warned George Osborne he should scale back his austerity drive.

The IMF recommended in May the UK Government borrow as much as £10 billion extra this year for infrastructure projects to offset austerity but this was rejected by the Treasury.

The UK has had growth of 0.3% in the first quarter and forecasts suggest as much as 0.6% in the second. The official figures for the three months to June should be out in a fortnight's time.

At present, the consensus of opinion on UK growth is 0.9% for the whole year.

An upbeat IMF prediction would follow recent string of positive numbers including:

l UK manufacturing seeing its strongest growth in two years in June with a confidence index of 52.5 last month, where anything over 50 indicates growth;

l The UK's services sector grew at its fastest rate for more than two years in June with a confidence index rating of 56.9;

However, other numbers make it clear there is still a very long way to go.

l While unemployment fell by 5000 across the UK in the three months to April, the total was still 2.5m, making the jobless rate unchanged at 7.8%. The respective figures for Scotland were 6000, 194,000 and 7.1%.

l In May, UK consumer price inflation rose to 2.7%, up from 2.4% in April.