UK economy grows by 0.4% in second quarter as some businesses helped by World Cup and hot weather – business live

Key events19m agoUK GDP grows 0.4% in second quarter helped by World Cup and weatherThe UK economy is estimated to be 1.2% bigger than it was a year ago.Real GDP per person is estimated to have increased by 0.4% in the second quarter, up 1.0% compared with the same quarter a year ago.These are the first UK GDP figures for Andy Burnham’s chancellor John Healey to respond to. Healey said:

double quotation markI know people are worried about the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on their cost of living, which has been too high for too long and it has added pressure on British businesses.

This is an active, hands-on government, putting British interests first – giving breathing space to those feeling the strain, making our country more resilient and bringing hope back.

We’ve seen the fastest growth in the G7 this year, but we now need to double down and drive growth in every postcode.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has been perhaps the dominant global economic narrative of 2026, but the effects on the UK economy still appear unclear, said the ONS.We know that higher oil prices have immediately fed through to higher inflation, but there has so far been limited evidence of what Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has termed “second-order effects” of price pressures spreading through the UK economy.Businesses are definitely alert to the threat from the conflict, which started at the end of February. However, the ONS put the war in the basket of “difficult to quantify their exact impact”.The ONS said