ECONOMIC growth in Kent will slow over the next four years, according to a new report.

Analysts Experian Business Strategies, part of international consultants DRI-WEFA, assesses the performance of more than 200 regions across the UK and Europe.

In a league table it ranks Kent 105th with output growth (GDP) for the county between now and 2006 forecast to average 2.4 per cent a year.

This compares with 74th place for the period 1996-2001, when growth averaged a heady three per cent a year.

Anthony Light, Experian Business Strategies' senior economist, said: "Economic growth in Kent is set to fall to a healthy but more sustainable level.

"The county is in good company. London and the southern regions of the UK have been expanding strongly over the last few years, so it is not surprising to find their growth rates slowing as well.

"Their rankings are consequently set to fall. But even allowing for some slowing, these are still strong and mostly in the top half of the table."

He said: "This contrasts with places like Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Hereford and Worcester and East Anglia, where significant increases in growth and rankings are forecast as middle England catches up."

Taking wealth created by people in these areas (measured by GDP per head of working age population, adjusted for commuting) Kent is expected to rank 36th in 2006, down slightly from 32nd place last year and in 1996.

This suggests that the county's prosperity is not likely to be seriously affected by the impending slowdown in economic growth.