UK economy grew by 0.2% in August as service sector provides boost, says ONS

The UK economy grew in August, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has confirmed.

The ONS said that gross domestic product (GDP) had been boosted by 0.2% over the period. The performance of the services sector helped to boost this. This includes industries such as education, engineering and computer programming.

This was in line with what economists and analysts had predicted. However, July's performance was also downgraded. July's fall of 0.5% was downgraded to 0.6%.

ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said: “Our initial estimate suggests GDP grew a little in August, led by strong growth in services which was partially offset by falls in manufacturing and construction. Within services, education returned to normal levels, while computer programmers and engineers both had strong months. Across the last three months as a whole the economy has grown modestly, led by car manufacturing and sales, and construction.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt added: “The UK has grown faster than France and Germany since the pandemic and today’s data shows the economy is more resilient than expected. While this is a good sign, we still need to tackle inflation so we can unlock sustainable growth.”