Stronger-than-expected growth for the U.K. economy this year is likely to be slowed down by 2015, when exports are unable to compensate for the drop in consumption caused by interest-rate increases, the British Chambers of Commerce said Thursday. The business group upgraded its gross-domestic-product growth forecast for this year to 3.2% from 3.1%, saying it expects household consumption for the remainder of 2014 to exceed previous expectations following a sharp drop in unemployment. The jobless rate fell to 6.4% in the three months to June, the lowest since late 2008. The group said, however, that the British economy could start a moderate slowdown as soon as 2015, when it predicts the Bank of England will start to gradually raise interest rates. BOE Governor Mark Carney hinted at this time frame during the presentation of the last Inflation Report this month. The BCC still upgraded the 2015 GDP forecast to 2.8% from 2.7%, but let the 2016 figure remain unchanged at 2.5%. Weakness in the international setting--namely stagnation in the euro zone, a key market for British products--means the U.K. is strongly dependent on internal demand to sustain current level of growth. But a rate increase in 2015 would put pressure on indebted households and act as a drag on consumption. "The economy is strong but it has problems: It's not sufficiently balanced," said David Kern, chief economist at the BCC. "We must make sure that the slowdown in consumer spending will be compensated by exports and investment from abroad, and this would not happen right now." Against what economists had forecast, the British trade deficit in goods and services in June widened compared with the previous month instead of being reduced, reaching GBP2.5 billion ($4.1 billion), the Office for National Statistics data showed. Despite the U.K government's efforts to help exporters as a means to rebalance the economy, sluggish global demand and a strong pound led exports of goods to fall by GBP400 million. This unexpected drop in the first half of 2014 has led the business group to downgrade expected increases in exports of goods and services to 0.8% from 1.9% for the full year and to 4.1% from 4.2% for 2015. The BCC represents more than 100,000 British businesses. Article