Denmark hikes economic growth forecast despite war, inflation

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's economy could grow as much as 3.4% this year despite the negative effects of the war in Ukraine and record high inflation, the finance ministry said on Thursday, a considerable upwards revision from its estimate from March.

"We came out of 2021 at an extremely high pace with a good starting point for continued growth," Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen said in a government report published on Thursday.

"Although we must expect a slowdown in the Danish economy during this year, the level of activity will continue to be high," Wammen said.

The forecast is an upgrade to an estimate released by the ministry in March, in which the economy was expected to grow 1.6% in a medium risk scenario.

However, in a scenario where the supply of Russian gas to Europe is cut off, the ministry only expects economic growth of 2%.

For 2023, the government forecasts growth of 1.9%.

The ministry expects inflation to rise to 5.2% this year in its main scenario, up from its March forecast of 4.5%.

The Danish central bank said in March it expected the economy to grow 2.1% this year.

(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by Toby Chopra and Alison Williams)