UK economy grew stronger than previously thought

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data has revealed that the UK’s economy recovered from the recession stronger than previously thought.

Figures released on Friday shows that between January and March gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.7%.

The ONS had estimated in May that the economy grew by 0.6% between January and March.

Mark Preskett, senior portfolio manager at Morningstar Wealth, said, “The upward revision to the UK’s Q1 GDP is encouraging and further evidence that the UK economy is recovering.

“The services upgrade – to 0.8% from 0.7% – backs what we have been seeing in inflation data.”

Thomas Pugh, economist at RSM UK, said, “All the data suggests that the economy is set to continue to rise in Q2.

“We then expect growth to accelerate in the second half of this year and into 2025 as sharply lower inflation, tax cuts and falling interest rates give households an income boost.”

Neil Shah, Director of Research at Edison Group said, “The latest UK GDP data shows that Britain’s economy grew quicker than expected in the first quarter of the year, expanding by 0.7% from the previous quarter.

“This shows that the UK economy still showed slow growth, rather than the most timely monthly estimate that showed no growth in April 2024.

“Particularly, services grew by 0.8% on the quarter with widespread growth across the sector; elsewhere the production sector grew by 0.6% while the construction sector fell by 0.6%.

“These figures are released less than a week before the General Election, serving as a last check on economic growth. These figures show that the UK economy is slowly starting to turn corner, confirming that the Britain’s economy exited a shallow recession at the start of 2024. Albeit slow, the economy has increased in the latest quarter following two consecutive quarters of negative growth and is slowly showing signs of a bounce back despite significant headwinds.”