and the independent trade economist rebecca harding. we start here in the uk where the economy is expected to do worse than every other major advanced country this year, including russia which has been hit by a barrage of economic sanctions from the west. that s according to the international monetary fund, the imf. it said the uk economy will shrink by 0.6% in 2023, rather than grow slightly as previously predicted. here s what they ve had to say. we have a very challenging environment in the united kingdom. we have a large terms of charts meaning that an energy crisis is very strong and in a country where there is a high dependence on liquid natural gas in the high pass through of the wholesale price to the retail price and this is heading towards the cost of living crisis and we have an environment as a response to this high inflation, there was a tightening of monetary policy by the bank of england and in the uk, this fits quickly into mortgages because a lot of mortgag