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UK economy grew 0.3% in November

GDP growth was helped by a bounce in the manufacturing and services sectors, data from the Office for National Statistics showed

Mehreen Khan, Economics Editor

Thursday January 15 2026, 7.13am GMT, The Times

A worker in the Jaguar Land Rover Wolverhampton factory restarting work after a cyber attack. — Manufacturing output improved, helped by the restart in production at Jaguar Land Rover following a cyberattackPA

The UK economy returned to growth of 0.3 per cent in November, after a contraction in the month preceding the budget.

Official figures showed economic output rose more than expected between October and November, beating forecasts of a 0.1 per cent rise from economists.

Growth in the three months to November was also up by 0.1 per cent of GDP, exceeding forecasts of a contraction of 0.2 per cent, and after flat growth in October, the Office for National Statistics said.

The economy was supported by an increase in car production after Jaguar Land Rover reopened its factories following a major cyber attack.

The figures also suggest that worries about the budget, which was held on November 26, did not hurt output as much as sentiment surveys from businesses and households had indicated.

The services sector, which makes up more than three-quarters of the economy, rose by 0.3 per cent in the month, after contracting by the same amount in October. Professional, scientific, and technical services were the best-performing part of the sector, expanding by 1.7 per cent.

Production output, which includes manufacturing, recorded a 1.1 per cent monthly increase and the construction sector contracted 1.2 per cent.

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The economy has slowed after a strong start to the year, when economic data has traditionally outperformed. Economists at Deutsche Bank said output in the first quarter of 2026 was on course to expand at a faster pace “as dust on the budget settles”.

“We expect households to spend a little more to start the year, and investment to remain on an uptrend for both the public and private sectors,” Sanjay Raja, UK economist at Deutsche Bank said.

Inflation is also on course to hit the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target as soon as April, according to City forecasters, and should provide some cost-of-living relief and lower interest rates for borrowers.

The Treasury said: “To make the economy work for working people, we are reversing years of underinvestment . . . There’s more to do – driving growth, delivering the consolidation to provide stability, keeping inflation low and stable, tackling the cost of living and bringing our borrowing costs down.”

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