Markets fall as growth hopes fade

Global markets have fallen on concerns over the length of the downturn after Federal Reserve minutes showed it lowered its forecast for US growth.The Dow Jones was down 1.5% by early afternoon, while the UK's FTSE 100 fell 2.8%, France's Cac 40 lost 2.6% and Germany's Dax shed 2.7% by their close.Asian shares had also ended lower with the Nikkei closed 1% down.UK shares were also hit after ratings agency Standard & Poor's revised the UK's outlook to negative.The agency cited rising public debt as a growing concern, which hit a record £8.46bn in April compared to £1.84bn in the same month last year.Standard & Poor's said UK debt could be close to 100% of gross domestic product, and remain at that level in the medium term."There are concerns finally coming through about where the underlying growth is going to come from," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, investment director at Seven Investment Management."We need a growing level of demand. There's a certain amount of restocking happening, and unfortunately the market has been taking that as a sign of a recovery, which it is not," he said.