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  IMF Inflicts 'Double Blow' On George Osborne
  George Osborne's spending cuts are called into question by the International Monetary Fund as it downgrades UK growth forecasts.
  The International Monetary Fund's chief economist has warned George Osborne that he is "playing with fire" with his fiscal policy.
  
  In an interview with Sky News, Olivier Blanchard also said that the Chancellor should have changed his austerity strategy at the Budget last month.
  
  The comments came as the IMF unveiled new forecasts which showed a dramatically weaker outlook for the British economy.
  
  Asked about Britain's prospects, Mr Blanchard said: "I think conditions have deteriorated. There is no question that the fiscal plan - which was designed a few years back - was assuming that private demand would be stronger than it is.
  
  "So the question is what do you do? Well the first line of defence is you let the so-called automatic stabilisers play.
  
  "That has been done, that's good. But then at some stage you actually have to sit down and say: do we continue?
  
  "The danger of having no growth, or very little growth, for a long time is very high; you get a number of vicious cycles which come into play... the result is that [people] don't spend, output is low.
  
  "And I think you're playing with fire when you get to very low growth rates so... if you can decrease the speed of fiscal consolidation maintaining the credibility (so it's not a question of whether, it's a question of when), when growth is close to zero I think yes it's worth considering."

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