15 January 2026
If you are covering the latest UK GDP figures from the Office for National Statistics, please find below a comment from Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter:
“The UK economy returned to growth in November, with GDP rising by 0.3%, but that growth over a longer period remains meagre at best. That monthly figure did beat expectations of 0.1% as the services sector continued to be the main engine of the UK economy. Production picked up 1.1% in the month but over three months remains in contraction, with the downturn in construction deepening. However, on aggregate November showed glimmers of hope, notable too given the Budget overhang continued during this period. Whether this materialises into anything more sustained remains highly questionable, however.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like a bumper Christmas period followed either as we saw weak retail sales from the British Retail Consortium this week, mirroring disappointing Christmas sales from UK retailers such as Tesco, M&S and Primark. For what should be a jolly time of the year, the economic cheer was missing.
“While domestic uncertainty has now lifted for now, following the Budget, the global picture remains incredibly volatile and this was be continuing to buffet businesses looking for any kind of stability. The good news, however, is that inflation is coming back to target quicker than expected and thus interest rate cuts may be more aggressive than first though, subsequently boosting the economy. With manufacturing output having potential to improve as the situation at Jaguar Land Rover stabilises in the aftermath of its cyber-attack and the potential for consumer activity to start to rebound as we leave winter behind, then there is some positivity for those looking for it. After today’s figures, the government will certainly be hoping for a repeat of last year when the first half of the year saw strong economic growth, before tailing off into this latest malaise.”
