Image source, Getty Images

We're now wrapping up our live coverage, which looked at the state of the UK economy and how different sectors of society have been feeling the pressure amid the cost of living crisis.

Here are some of today's headlines:

• The UK economy grew by 0.1% in November, which was better than analysts had expected
• Pubs and restaurants contributed to the slight growth as people went out to watch World Cup games, the ONS says
• In light of today's figures, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt pledged to "stick to the plan to halve inflation this year so we get the economy growing again"
• You sent in your burning questions and the BBC's head of statistics, Robert Cuffe, and personal finance analyst Myron Jobson answered them
• Today's news makes it less likely for the UK to have entered a recession in 2022, but the Resolution Foundation says the Bank of England and the OBR are forecasting the UK economy to contract through much of 2023 - and therefore enter a recession
• Although the economy is in a better position than forecasters expected, families and businesses continue to feel the pressure of rising bills
• We've been hearing testimonies from those having to make drastic changes to their lifestyle amid the cost of living crisis

Thank you for joining us. Our editors were Jeremy Gahagan, Nathan Williams, James Harness and Sarah Fowler. And today's writers were Gem O'Reilly, Sam Hancock, Nick Edser, Adam Durbin, Malu Cursino, George Wright and Michael Sheils McNamee.

Image source, EPA

It's a good question. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure - or attempted measure - of all the economic activity of companies, governments and individuals in a country.

It is one of the most important tools for looking at how well, or badly, an economy is doing, helping businesses judge when to expand and hire more people, and enabling the government to work out how much to tax and spend.

In the UK, new GDP figures are produced every month, but the quarterly figures - covering three months at a time - are the most widely watched.

In a growing economy, each quarterly GDP will be slightly bigger than the previous three-month period, a sign people are doing more work and getting (on average) a little bit richer.

Most economists, politicians and businesses like to see GDP rising steadily because it usually means people spend more, more jobs are created, more tax is paid and workers get better pay rises.

GDP can be measured in three ways:

• Output: The total value of the goods and services produced by all sectors of the economy - agriculture, manufacturing, energy, construction, the service sector and government
• Expenditure: The value of goods and services bought by households and by government, investment in machinery and buildings - this also includes the value of exports, minus imports
• Income: The value of the income generated, mostly in terms of profits and wages

In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes one single measure of GDP, which is calculated using all three measurements. But early estimates mainly use the output measure, using data collected from thousands of companies.

Why the focus on the World Cup?published at 16:01 Greenwich Mean Time 13 January 2023

16:01 GMT 13 January 2023

Robert Cuffe
BBC's head of statistics

Image source, Reuters

Mike wants to know why the World Cup has been given as a key reason for the UK's economic growth in November.

Given it didn't start until 20 November, and then lasted until 18 December, should we not be expecting December to be a positive month? he asks.

The World Cup isn't the only reason for growth, but it is the most interesting reason in this month's figures.

There was a mixture of good and bad news across different sectors: administrative and support services grew by 2% for example, while construction was flat and production output shrank slightly.

The hoo-ha about whether or not we meet the exact definition of a recession (consecutive three-month periods of shrinking) shouldn’t distract from the bigger picture.

The economy is not growing like anyone would hope for. The latest estimate for the size of the economy is still below what it was in February.

We can hope that retail sales in December plus some good footballing news will outweigh the effect of strikes, but we’ll have to wait until 10 February to find out.

Gem O'Reilly
BBC News

Image source, Scope

Anne Vivian-Smith used to be well and work full-time. She and her partner were earning good money and able to afford their own home and car.

But several years ago Anne started to get ill with a neurodegenerative autoimmune disorder. Within two years she ended up in a wheelchair and her partner became her carer. They both lost their careers.

Anne said: "We went from earning £40,000 each a year to now earning £20,000 and having disability benefits."

Anne had to install devices in the home for her to live with her condition. These include two ceiling-track hoists, a powered wheelchair and a motorised door. They all require charging and use up a lot of energy, so with energy prices rising, Anne's bills went from £84 a month to £259.

Her energy usage can never go down to the same level that a non-disabled person's can, she said: "I can't switch them off, not like other people".

This has resulted in Anne and her partner not being able to put the heating on. She said: "Everyday I'm cold, everyday I'm stuck in a damp house. Everyday I worry about putting the kettle on.

"Everything is so expensive. My smart meter is a blessing and curse because I become obsessed with it. Every time I turn the shower on it's £3.18."

Anne says she was poor as a child: "I remember the milk getting clearer as the week went on my mum would water it down so we would have enough. I remember being cold and hungry. You don't expect that 50 years on you'll experience that again, things are supposed to get better."

She showed me the hot water bottle her mum gave her as a little girl and said she's using it again now, 50 years later.

Do GDP figures take inflation into account?published at 15:30 Greenwich Mean Time 13 January 2023

15:30 GMT 13 January 2023

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

Jez wonders whether economic growth figures, like GDP, are inclusive of inflationary price increases.

To put it another way, he says, would a 50% increase in all prices accompanied by a 25% fall in all sales still show up as a net increase in GDP?

It's important to remember that GDP - gross domestic product - tries to measure actual increases in what we produce and to strip out the effect of rising prices.

It’s like how we talk about wages in different ways:

• Wage growth - bigger numbers on your pay cheque
• “Real” wage growth - how much more your salary buys you, once you’ve taken account of rising prices

It's the same for GDP. And the headline measure is the one that looks at “real” increases in the size of the economy.

Where should I invest my money?published at 15:17 Greenwich Mean Time 13 January 2023

15:17 GMT 13 January 2023

Myron Jobson
Senior personal finance analyst, Interactive Investor

Back to our questions where Peter Bolland asks about investment opportunities. He's wondering whether there are areas that might improve over the next few years.

As an investor myself, I certainly hope so! It was a year to forget for many investors (including yours truly) as surging inflation and rising interest rates pummelled investments. Without a functioning crystal ball no-one knows what the future holds, but there is growing evidence that some of the headwinds hindering investments, such as the post-Covid supply bottlenecks and high fuel prices, have started to ease.

Offering a prediction on investments is difficult - even for professional managers. One year’s winners can be next year’s losers and there are no guarantees. Whatever the future has in store for investments, diversification remains the name of the game, reducing potential risks and increasing potential returns by spreading your investments across different assets.

It is important to consider your risk appetite (you shouldn’t lose sleep over an investment) and taking a long-term view - at least five years, and preferably longer.

Image source, Black Sheep Brewery

A Yorkshire pub company says its bills will rocket once the current government support scheme runs out in March.

"Energy prices will still absolutely soar for us and for everybody else as well," says Charlene Lyons, chief executive at Black Sheep Brewery.

Classed as an energy-intensive business, the pub will get a steeper discount under the new scheme.

But the company also owns five pubs which will not benefit from the bigger discount and neither will the many pubs that Black Sheep Brewery supplies.

"We know that if pubs don't get the same level of support they are going to be impacted in the same ways they have been impacted recently which is shorter opening times,” she says.

"If we were to push all of the price increases over to the consumer across the board, whether it be energy, input costs of raw materials and everything you'd be talking about over £10 a pint, which is clearly not sustainable.”

Read more here.

Myron Jobson
Senior personal finance analyst, Interactive Investor

Christopher Nottage has the next question, he who wonders why, if the UK has temporarily avoided a recession, citizens aren't benefiting from any kind of newfound prosperity.

You ask an interesting question, Christopher. Yes, the UK economy grew in November, but only by a modest amount (0.1%). If you look at the broader picture, GDP fell by 0.3% in the three months to November 2022. This doesn’t paint a picture of a prospering economy unfortunately, but the better than expected performance in GDP offers a glimmer of optimism.

Some economists still believe that a UK recession is inevitable, but the news is a boost to the chances of avoiding a long recession.

The sad reality is living standards remain under significant pressure. We are still paying more than we did in the past to put food on our tables and to heat our homes.

Inflation is expected to fall significant this year, but is not expected to return to the Bank of England’s 2% target until the end of 2024.

Why aren't saving rates increasing too?published at 14:42 Greenwich Mean Time 13 January 2023

14:42 GMT 13 January 2023

Myron Jobson
Senior personal finance analyst, Interactive Investor

Colin Carmichael wonders why interest rates have increased, but saving rates haven't. He asks whether he should wait until after the next base rate rise before investing in a fixed rate account.

This is a fair question, Colin. When it comes to savings, higher interest rates do not always translate to higher savings rates. It could take months for the increase in interest rates to trickle through to savers – if at all. The acceleration in the frequency of rate rises has meant that some savings providers may still be catching up to past base rate rises.

Put simply, you may get a better rate on a fixed rate account in the near future – but there are no guarantees. The amount you are looking to save could guide your decision.

An uptick in savings rates could mean the difference between pennies and hundreds of pounds depending on how much you have to save.

Will inflation halve this year?published at 14:29 Greenwich Mean Time 13 January 2023

14:29 GMT 13 January 2023

Myron Jobson
Senior personal finance analyst, Interactive Investor

Next up, Dan JM asks what has to happen, in terms of UK economic activity, for inflation to halve this year?

That’s still on track – we’re led to believe. The increase in the cost of seemingly all areas of expenditure from the food we put on our tables to how much we spend to heat our homes has squeezed budgets and eroded spending power. But there are signs that inflationary pressures are beginning to ease (thankfully!).

Commodity prices, including wholesale oil and gas, have fallen notably. The average price of petrol has fallen below 150p a litre for the first time in nearly a year. Energy bills, meanwhile, are forecasted to fall – to below £2,500 from July, investment firm Investec predicts.

When it comes to the supply of goods, inventories are building up and shipping costs are falling – all good signs for price pressures to wane.

The Bank of England still expects inflation to fall sharply from the middle of the year and be close to its 2% target level by the end of 2024. We’re not out of the woods yet, so it remains important to keep on top of your finances.

What will happen to interest rates now?published at 14:20 Greenwich Mean Time 13 January 2023

14:20 GMT 13 January 2023

Myron Jobson
Senior personal finance analyst, Interactive Investor

The first question comes from Bradipo, who asks what will happen to the Bank of England interest rate? He says some people have renewed for a fix rate and they'll pay too much for years.

It is a good question Bradipo. The prevailing sentiment is interest rates will go up in the short term before falling back as inflation cools. Some economists forecast a rise in interest rates from 3.5% now to a peak of about 4.5 to 4.75% at around the halfway point of the year – when inflation is expected to fall sharply. But there are no certainties and the Bank of England is faced with a tricky balancing act.

Your point about increasing mortgage costs is a fair one. According to recent official data, the majority (57%) of fixed rate mortgages in the UK due to mature in 2023 were fixed at interest rates below 2%. With many mortgage rates now above the 5% mark, the stark reality for many mortgage holders approaching the end of their fixed term is higher monthly cost.

It is a tricky environment for mortgage holders. For those anxious about their predicament, it is worth consulting a mortgage adviser.

It's that time. Myron Jobson, senior personal finance analyst at Interactive Investor, is going to start answering some of your questions shortly.

Stay tuned for his advice on how best to cope with financial pressures as the cost of living continues to rise.

How are small businesses faring at the moment?

Lileth Holsey Sheppard, owner of The Butcher's Block in Bromsgrove, has been telling the BBC how the last year has been.

"We won an independent business award at the beginning of November which really helped capitalise on Christmas, which is always a good time of year for butchers anyway," she tells Radio 4's World at One.

As bills started to drastically rise around September, she started "regulating things a little bit more and then just hoping you'll get the trade".

Looking to the year ahead, Sheppard says she thinks it's going to be "very tough".

"People have been slowly adapting their shopping. We don't pre-pack things, we do everything to order as a traditional butchers.

"What we found was that, rather than people coming in once a week do to their weekly shop, they may come in twice a week and are going more budget to budget - smaller sales but bigger numbers," she says.

But rising costs are having a huge impact on profits, she says.

"All the business we did over December, our costs rise massively.

"It still just means we're a break-even business and that's something that we have to be very cautious of all the time - making sure we hit our bottom line."

"Business is actually very tough at the moment," says Adrian Hanrahan, managing director of chemicals firm Robinson Brothers.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's World at One, he says: "We’ve just finished our financial year and we made a loss – manageable but a loss."

But he says it was not unexpected: "We were predicting this [loss] from August to September time."

Demand for the West Bromwich company's products has dropped, with customers turning to their competitors in Europe, China and the US who can make the same products more cheaply with access to lower energy costs, says Adrian.

"In the past, people paid a premium to purchase anything from the UK, particularly manufactured products, but that has drifted because the gap is just way too large now," he says.

However, new projects are coming through, Adrian says, but they will take 12 months to three years to come to life.

"Although our new product pipeline is looking very healthy, we won’t see the benefit of that for at least another three or four years, so we’ve got to get through this interim period."

Speaking to the BBC previously, Adrian said: "I fear that redirecting our money away from innovation into basically survival is not a good thing for the business and it's not a good thing for UK plc either."

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

The surprise growth in November means a recession in the UK has been delayed, but "not cancelled", according to Thomas Pugh, an economist at audit, tax and consulting firm RSM UK.

He still expects the economy to contract during the first three quarters - or nine months - of this year, as households continue to struggle with the rising cost of living. The economy is considered to be in recession if it shrinks for two three-month periods in a row.

However, he says that if the recession proves relatively mild, that would mean that unemployment rises more slowly, wages continue to grow strongly and prices rise at a faster pace than expected.

If this is the case then the Bank of England (BoE) might have to raise interest rates more than expected.

The BoE has been raising rates to try to cut inflation - the rate at which prices rise - which remains near a 40-year high.

Raising interest rates helps to control inflation by making it more expensive to borrow money. This encourages people to borrow and spend less, and to save more.

"A milder recession may just mean that the Bank of England raises interest rates further from 3.50% to around 4.25% in the next few months," Pugh says.

Richard Shaw says he has had to bath his two young children, aged 17 months and two, in the kitchen sink due to the rising cost of heating oil.

The 33-year-old lives in Doveridge in the Derbyshire Dales, where about one in 10 households depend on oil to heat their homes.

He says the cost of filling the 220 gallon (1,000 litre) tank has nearly tripled in the past year.

Richard, who is disabled and not working, says when he and his family moved into the house a year ago, the cost of filling the tank was about £400 but prices have risen rapidly since then.

"In the end, we nearly ran out of heating oil," he says.

"We couldn't afford any more. It got to the point where we were bathing the kids in the sink in the kitchen, filling up the kettle, boiling it, then letting it cool, for the water."

Eventually he was able to get an oil delivery thanks to Rural Action Derbyshire, a charity that has started an oil bank to help people in need.

Read more here.

Image source, .

Personal finance analyst Myron Jobson will be here soon to answer your questions about the economy.

As we've been reporting, UK gross domestic product (GDP) grew slightly by 0.1% in November but shrank overall in the latest three-month period by 0.3%.

You can ask Myron anything you'd like to know about the current economic situation, saving money, and tips for coping with pressures on our finances as the cost of living continues to rise.

Get in touch in the following ways:

• Email: yourquestions@bbc.co.uk
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In some cases a selection of your comments and questions will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.

The economy can be difficult to wrap your head around at times.

What is economic growth, and what happens if there isn’t any? And what does that GDP figure stand for?

In this BBC podcast Tim Harford explains how and why we measure everything.

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

Image source, Getty Images

While today's focus has been on what happened in November, what matters now is what happens this year, as rising debts, interest costs, and elevated food and energy prices hit consumers hard.

While the unseasonal Qatar World Cup may have helped us avoid a technical recession in 2022, in economic terms, we haven’t even qualified from the opening group stages of this situation just yet.

The consequence of slightly better-than-expected data is that it increases the likelihood of further base interest rate rises from 3.5% to 4% by the Bank of England, from early next month.

The Bank is currently grappling with whether factors such as post-Covid supply chain issues, post-Brexit trade constraints, and a shrinking workforce are having a long-term impact on the economy.

Decision makers have some theories, but are not certain why the UK stands out from other similar countries that did see their entire workforces return after the pandemic.

All this matters because the Bank will judge whether the economy is not as efficient as it was, and is more prone to high and sustained inflation.

It’s what the experts refer to as the economy’s “speed limit”. If that has been lowered for this variety of reasons, interest rates will go up further, above 4%, and, as importantly, stay there for longer. If not, households and businesses might get some respite.

In the short term, the full impact of even existing higher rates, and of energy price rises, is yet to be felt in household finances.

So while a technical recession may not now prove to have started in June, most economists anticipate we are probably, right now, still in one. And for millions of households, it will certainly feel like that.

Businesses are always monitoring the state of the UK economy, and this morning's GDP figures will have been welcomed, but there are still concerns.

Carl Arntzen, CEO of boiler manufacturer Worcester Bosch, says the biggest impact on his firm would be if inflation causes the housing market to crash.

He says: "We are very reliant on the housing market and people moving house. Very often when people move, their first renovation is the kitchen and the boiler is in the kitchen.

"If we go into a recession, housing will probably have a negative impact on our overall volumes."

The move away from gas boilers is also another factor that could negatively impact companies like Worcester Bosch, as they mainly manufacture gas boilers.

Carl said: "We are investing and researching new technologies. We've done development work on hydrogen as a fuel for heating.

We also sell electric heat pumps, we are also looking at a hybrid of a gas boiler working with an electric heat pump to move away from our reliance on natural gas."