The UK economy’s gross domestic product (GDP) rate grew by 0.1 per cent between October and December 2025, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made economic growth central to her economic agenda since Labour returned to Government in July 2024, however has received criticism over her decision-making.
It comes after previous figures from the ONS showed that the economy contracted by 0.1 per cent in October and then expanded by 0.3 per cent in November as the manufacturing sector was boosted by recovering production at Jaguar Land Rover after its major cyber attack.
However, the ONS revised its GDP rate figure down from 0.3 per cent to 0.2 per cent in another blow to the Chancellor’s efforts.
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ONS
There was no reported growth in the services sector, while production jumped by 1.2 per cent in the last three months of 2025, based on the latest figures of last year.
Concerningly, the construction contracted by around 2.1 per cent over the period, which is likely to be a blow to Labour’s promise to build more houses to address the property crisis.
Liz McKewon, the director of economic statistics at the ONS, said: “The economy continued to grow slowly in the last three months of the year, with the growth rate unchanged from the previous quarter.
“The often-dominant services sector showed no growth, with the main driver instead coming from manufacturing. Construction, meanwhile, registered its worst performance in more than four years.
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ONS“The rate of growth across 2025 as a whole was up slightly on the previous year, with growth seen in all main sectors. Initial estimates show GDP per head was up on the previous year despite it contracting slightly in each of the last two quarters.”
Responding to the latest GDP figures, Daisy Cooper MP, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, said: “Two anti-growth Budgets have killed off the economic recovery that our country so desperately needs.
“Our plans for a new Department for Growth would give government a laser-like mission to Get Britain Growing Again and end the cost of living crisis.”
Despite this meager economic growth, Scottish Friendly’s savings expert Kevin Brown asserted that the UK economy was showing signs of being “stubbornly resilient”.
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He said: “The UK economy managed to carve out another quarter of modest growth at the end of 2025, and annual growth of 1.3% shows it has proved stubbornly resilient.
“Elevated interest rates, sticky inflation, and months of budget-related uncertainty could have been enough to stall activity altogether. Instead, growth has held up, albeit only just.
“There are early signs that once the fog around the Autumn Budget began to clear, parts of the economy regained direction, particularly across the services sector. That was enough to offset ongoing weakness in manufacturing and construction and keep the economy inching forward.”
In response to the fourth-quarter GDP figures, the Chancellor said: “Thanks to the choices we have made, we’ve seen six interest rate cuts since the election, inflation falling faster than predicted and ours is the fastest growing G7 economy in Europe.
“The Government has the right economic plan to build a stronger and more secure economy, cutting the cost of living, cutting the national debt and creating the conditions for growth and investment in every part of the country.”