Britain\u2019s economy grew far more than expected in February, official data showed Friday, in a rare piece of good news for the Labour government as it grapples with unpredictable US tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gross domestic product rose 0.5 percent in the month, rebounding from an upwardly revised figure of zero percent growth in January, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has struggled to kickstart growth since it came to power in July, with the recent pick up in the economy coming just before US President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs threatened to hamper global growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fresh economic headwinds and stubborn inflation led the UK to recently halve its 2025 growth forecast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Friday\u2019s figures exceeded economists\u2019 expectations of a much smaller 0.1 percent increase in GDP in February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In another boost, the ONS also revised its figures from January to zero percent growth, up from a 0.1 percent contraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese growth figures are an encouraging sign, but we are not complacent,\u201d finance minister Rachel Reeves said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe world has changed, and we have witnessed that change in recent weeks,\u201d she added, as Trump\u2019s sweeping stop-start tariffs roil global markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Analysts warn that the 10 percent levy on US imports of British goods could further weaken business and consumer sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Specific industries such as auto, steel and aluminium face even steeper tariffs of as high as 25 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI know this is an anxious time for families who are worried about the cost of living and British businesses who are worried about what this change means for them,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday loosened electric vehicle targets for carmakers impacted by tariffs in order to \u201cshelter British business from the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 \u2018Precarious position\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe UK is in somewhat of a precarious position right now, caught in the crossfire of the constantly changing economic policy of the US,\u201d said Marcus Brookes, chief investment officer at Quilter Investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe government will need to think creatively and find some quick wins in order to sustain this positive reading and negate the economic impact tariffs will bring,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the strain of tight public finances, Reeves recently announced billions of pounds of spending cuts, including to disability welfare payments, in the hopes of shoring up the public purse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown noted that there was \u201cwidespread growth across both services and manufacturing industries,\u201d in February. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAcross the last three months as a whole, the economy also grew strongly with broad-based growth across services industries,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Britain\u2019s economy grew far more than expected in February, official data showed Friday, in a rare piece of good news for the Labour government as it grapples with unpredictable US tariffs. Gross domestic product rose 0.5 percent in the month, rebounding from an upwardly revised figure of zero percent growth in January, the Office for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[3647,193,3648,2216],"class_list":["post-8545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-economic","tag-news","tag-rebound","tag-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8547,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545\/revisions\/8547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}