The International Monetary Fund has lowered its U.S. economic growth forecasts for this year and next. In its World Economic Outlook update released Sunday, the IMF cut its U.S. gross domestic product forecast for 2017 to 2.1% from a prior forecast of 2.3%, and its 2018 outlook to 2.1% from 2.5%. The downgrade for this year partly reflects weak first-quarter growth, the IMF said. But the biggest factor behind growth revisions, especially for 2018, "is the assumption that fiscal policy will be less expansionary than previously assumed, given the uncertainty about the timing and nature of U.S. fiscal policy changes," said the IMF. It added that market expectations of fiscal stimulus have also pulled back. Elsewhere, the forecast for U.K. growth was cut to 1.7% from 2.0% for 2017, while growth projections for many euro-area countries were revised up for this year, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain.via