BackUK GDP grows by 0.2% in Q2 2023, reflects faster post-COVID recovery
UK's economic performance since the start of the pandemic stronger than previously thought, surpassing Germany and France.
PremiumSignalling a faster post-pandemic recovery, UK's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.2% in the second quarter of 2023 than the previous quarter, revealed the Office for National Statistics in its data on Friday.
As a whole, Britain's economy in the second quarter of 2023 stood at 1.8% larger than in the final quarter of 2019. The lst full quarter before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The recent data has presented a revision from the previous ONS estimate, which stated that the economy was still 0.2% smaller than before the pandemic, which had placed it at the bottom of the table among major advanced economies.
The revised ONS data puts Britain's economic growth ahead of that of Germany or France. The recent revision had been widely expected, after the ONS published preliminary revisions on September 1 to suggest that the economy was already 0.6% larger than its pre-pandemic size in the final quarter of 2021.
GDP numbers can serve as a confidence booster for the British on their Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. It will also help him garnering support in the upcoming Conservative Party's annual conference against a backdrop of dire opinion poll ratings a year before an expected general election and splits over the future of a flagship rail project.
Britain's relative economic performance since the pandemic and its departure from the European Union has been a focus of political debate, especially with a national election likely next year.
Britain's growth of 1.8% over the period compares with growth of 1.7% in France and 0.2% in Germany, but trails far behind the 6.1% expansion seen in the United States. British Gross Domestic Product for the first-quarter was revised up to 0.3% from 0.1%.
Soon after the release of the data, the pound rose 0.3% to around $1.2241 after the release, the strongest since Monday.
“Data out today once again proves the doubters wrong," Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said in a statement. “The best way to continue this growth is to stick to our plan to halve inflation this year, with the IMF forecasting that we will grow more than Germany, France, and Italy in the longer term."
Experts believe that the recent economic data is not significant enough to change the overall picture of a flatlining economy,
“Unfortunately this snapshot of economic data is not significant enough to change the overall picture of a flatlining economy," said Jake Finney, an economist at PwC. “If anything, the GDP data revisions may marginally dampen the UK’s growth prospects for 2023 and 2024 as they reduce the potential for bounce-back growth."
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