Financial News: UK GDP Expands Slightly

UK GDP Expands Slightly

07/16/2026 - 03:15:00 (RTTNews)

(RTTNews) - The UK economy expanded slightly in May driven by the service sector output, the Office for National Statistics reported Thursday.

Gross domestic product grew 0.1 percent, offsetting a 0.1 percent fall in April, which was the first drop since October 2025. GDP was forecast to remain flat in May.

The monthly growth was driven by a rebound in the services output. Services output rose 0.3 percent compared to a 0.1 percent fall in April.

Partially offsetting this gain, industrial output declined 0.5 percent, following 0.2 percent rise in April. Within industrial output, manufacturing edged up 0.1 percent. At the same time, construction output shrank 0.8 percent after a 0.1 percent decrease in April.

On a yearly basis, GDP advanced 1.3 percent in May.

In three months to May, GDP grew 0.7 percent, following a growth of 0.8 percent in the three months to April. The economy expanded 1.1 percent from the same period last year. Another data from ONS showed that the visible trade gap narrowed to four-month low of GBP 18.66 billion in May from GBP 24.58 billion in April. At the same time, the surplus on services trade rose slightly to GBP 17.6 billion from GBP 17.5 billion in the previous month.

As a result, the total trade deficit declined to GBP 1.04 billion from GBP 7.05 billion in the previous month.

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