The UK’s GDP grew 0.3% in Quarter 2 2025 (April to June), surprising to the upside.
Data published by the Office for National Statistics on Thursday (14 August) shows that the Services (+0.4%) and Construction (+1.2%) sectors both grew, but Production (-0.3%) fell.
The total underlying trade deficit widened £1.7 billion to a deficit of £9.2 billion in Quarter 2 (April to June) 2025 because of a larger rise in imports than exports.
Commenting on today’s GDP figures, ONS’ Director of Economic Statistics, Liz McKeown, noted that growth slowed in the second quarter after a strong start to the year.
“The economy was weak in April and May, with some activity having been brought forward to February and March ahead of Stamp Duty and tariff changes, but then recovered strongly in June,” she said.
Across the second quarter as a whole, growth was led by services, with computer programming, health, and vehicle leasing growing. Construction also increased while production fell back slightly.
Growth for the quarter was also boosted by updated source data from April, which, while still showing a contraction, was better than initially estimated.
“Services also drove growth in June with scientific R&D, engineering, and car sales all having a strong month. Within production, which recovered, the manufacture of electronics performed especially well,” said McKeown.
The figures will come as a welcome relief for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is facing a growing unemployment problem.
The latest ONS earnings and employment data for July 2025 show the UK economy losing momentum. Early estimates indicate that the number of payrolled employees was 30.3 million, down 0.5% from July 2024, equivalent to 164,000 fewer employees.
The largest increase was in the health and social work sector, which added 67,000 employees, while the accommodation and food service activities sector saw the largest decrease with a fall of 108,000 employees.
On a monthly basis, payrolled employment decreased by 8,000 in July compared with June, with the figures for July treated as provisional and likely to be revised.
The June 2025 monthly fall has been revised from a decrease of 41,000 to a smaller drop of 26,000 as more real-time information has been incorporated. Median monthly pay increased by 5.7% compared with July 2024, with annual pay growth strongest in public administration and defence at 8.6%, and weakest in the professional, scientific and technical sector at 4.0%.
Leave a Reply