UK Economy Grows by Only 0.1% amid Falling Business Investment

THE GUARDIAN: GDP in last three months of 2025 also hit by weak consumer spending, with little momentum going into this year

The UK economy expanded by only 0.1% in the final three months of last year, according to official data, as falling business investment and weak consumer spending led to little momentum going into 2026.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the economy grew at the same rate of 0.1% as the previous three months. This was less than a 0.2% rise that economists had been expecting.

The economy grew by 1.3% in 2025, an improvement on growth of 1.1% in 2024, although worse than official forecasts of 1.5%. The ONS said the economy also expanded by 0.1% on a monthly basis in December, slowing from 0.2% in November – a figure that was revised down from 0.3%.

The rise came despite there being no growth at all in the dominant services sector, which makes up about 80% of the economy. The small boost was instead driven by the production sector, up by 1.2%, while the construction industry shrank 2.1%, its worst performance in four years, the ONS said. » | Tom Knowles | Thursday, February 11, 2026

We can thank that tw*t—use the vowel of your own choosing to replace the asterisk!—Nigel Farage for the UK’s sluggish growth in the last ten years. No economist worth his salt would recommend a nation to cut itself off from the Single Market — the biggest single market in the world! And a single market on the nation’s doorstep, to boot!

Boarding the nation’s dinghy and sailing around the world on the high seas looking for little trade deals here and perhaps bigger ones there is NOT going to fix the problem! The sooner that Starmer grows a pair and levels with the nation about this ongoing problem, the better. The process of rejoining the European Union needs to be started. Fact is, we should never have left the European Union in the first place. Brexit was always going to fail. It was Farage’s folly. The sooner this country turns its back on Brexit, the sooner it will start to achieve economically again. In this world of huge economic blocks, a shrunken empire like the United Kingdom’s otherwise doesn’t stand a chance. — © Mark Alexander

UK Heads for Long Recession as Economy Shrinks by 0.2%

THE GUARDIAN: ONS figures for three months to September give bleak picture in run-up to chancellor’s autumn statement

Britain’s economy shrank by 0.2% in the three months to September, in what is expected to be the beginning of a long recession.

In its first estimate of growth in the third quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) presented a bleak picture of the economy before next week’s autumn statement from the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.

Activity in the service sector ground to a halt, with zero growth over the quarter, driven by a fall in consumer spending as households came under mounting pressure from the cost of living crisis.

Growth in the construction sector slowed, while factory output slumped because of a sharp decline in manufacturing as some businesses continued to struggle with supply chain difficulties and shortages of key materials. » | Larry Elliott and Richard Partington | Friday, November 11, 2022

Europe Braces for Recession as Economies Falter: Britain’s economic output fell in the third quarter and European Union officials forecast weakening growth for countries across the continent. »