UK grows 0.6% in the first quarter — before the Iran war really started to hit global economy

The U.K. economy grew 0.6% in the first quarter, according to preliminary figures from the Office for National Statistics on Thursday.

It matches what economists polled by Reuters expected for the January-March period, and follows revised growth of 0.2% in the fourth quarter.

"Growth picked up in the first quarter of the year, led by broad-based increases across the services sector," Liz McKeown, director of Economic Statistics at the ONS, commented on X on Thursday.

Production also grew slightly, she added, and while construction returned to growth, that was only partly reversing weakness at the end of last year.

There were indications that the Q1 data could be positive after a revised 0.4% expansion in February, but the Iran war is expected to weigh on macroeconomic data going forward. The economy grew 0.3% in March, the ONS said Thursday.