Jennifer Meierhans
Business reporter

We are going to bring our live reporting of the UK economy to a close so here's a quick recap of what we've covered this morning.

• The headline: UK economic growth slowed in the second quarter of the year to 0.3%
• The detail: This was better than economists had forecast but still marks a slowdown from 0.7% growth in the first quarter
• The why: In the first quarter of the year there was a rise in exports and house sales before US tariffs and stamp duty hike kicked in - that had fallen away in the second quarter
• The politics: Chancellor Rachel Reeves says the figures show "continued growth...but there is more to do" but shadow chancellor Mel Stride accused her of "economic vandalism". Meanwhile, Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper says “snails would scoff at the pace that our economy is growing".
• What's next: The health of the economy will continue to be closely watched ahead of the autumn Budget when the chancellor will announce her tax and spending choices.

You can continue to follow the latest updates in my colleague Tom Espiner's story: UK economic growth slows but beats forecasts

Emer Moreau
Business reporter

The chief executive of Butlin's - which runs three holiday resorts in England and employs around 4,000 people - told BBC News that "more affluent" Britons are starting to splash out more, but less well-off families are still being cautious about their spending.

Jon Hendry Pickup says the company's wealthier customers have become "a little bit more confident in what they're spending". This, he says, is due to two years of wages rising faster than inflation.

But, he adds, families on lower incomes were still cautious about spending money on holidays, and often still take an all-or-nothing approach.

“Any messages that are out there in the news that say 'this is bad', or 'that looks bad', or what's happening with utility bills... that really shuts them down, and they just stop spending altogether," he says.

Image source, PA Media

Looking again at reaction to the latest GDP figures, and Lib Dem Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper says “snails would scoff at the pace that our economy is growing".

“The Conservative Party led us into this economic quagmire but this Labour government has failed to break from the years of mismanagement. Their rhetoric on economic growth has not survived contact with reality," Cooper says.

She says the government needs to scrap the increase to employers' national insurance, which she calls the "damaging jobs tax", cut "red tape" on exports to Europe, and lower energy costs for industry.

Jennifer Meierhans
Business reporter

The UK produces one of the quickest estimates of GDP of the major economies, about 40 days after the quarter in question.

At that stage, only about 60% of the data is available, so the figure is revised as more information comes in.

There are no revisions to previous quarters today but the monthly figure for April has been revised up.

The initial estimate showed the economy shrank by 0.3% in April but the ONS now say it contracted by 0.1%.

May's figure stayed the same at 0.1% contraction.

Rachel Clun
Business reporter

Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics says June's economic growth of 0.4% and the quarterly growth of 0.3% is a “welcome surprise”.

Gregory says it's an “impressive result” given some economic activity had been pulled into the first three months of the year ahead of US tariffs and UK stamp duty changes on 1 April.

But she says it's unlikely this pace of economic growth will continue into the second half of the year.

“The weak global economy will remain a drag on UK GDP growth for a while yet. The full drag on business investment from April’s tax rises has yet to be felt,” she said.

“And the ongoing speculation about further tax rises in the autumn Budget will probably keep consumers in a cautious mood.”

Peter Ruddick
Business reporter, reporting from Liverpool

It’s too early for champagne - both literally and metaphorically - in Liverpool this morning, but I’ve already got some reaction from a bar owner to the economic figures, and it is quite positive.

Iain Hoskins owns several venues and tells me he’s feeling more hopeful than he has for some time.

“We were very worried, obviously, with the last Budget,” he says. “The National Insurance rise was huge. That was £100,000 worth of costs added to our business. However, we’re feeling more positive than we have done for the last few years.”

So, what changed? Weather and consumer confidence.

“The quarter that we are talking about, we had a very early summer and often that period can be a complete washout,” he tells me. “Unexpected sunshine really did bring people out in force.”

“Interest rates going down has really helped - more money in peoples’ pockets. That is fundamental.”

Can the chancellor claim the UK's economy is 'world leading'?published at 08:22 BST 14 August

08:22 BST 14 August

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

The chancellor has just made the “G7-leading” claim, this time on a slightly different basis.

The UK has definitively slipped from the top to the middle of the G7 table for Q2, falling behind the US and possibly Japan, which is yet to report.

But adding Q1’s better performance to Q2, is still very likely to see the UK as the fastest-growing economy in the G7 across the first half of the year. We await absolute confirmation after the figures from Japan and Canada are released.

On one level, these political boasts about growth league tables can all get a little tiresome.

But this has become the central metric by which the main political parties have sought to compare their economic performance internationally.

It is also hard-wired into the government’s original “missions”. And for good measure Canada’s PM Mark Carney has also promised it for his country. So, although it’s no longer true in Q2, the chancellor is likely to continue with a different version of the same claim.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves says today's figures "beat expectations" in the second quarter and the UK is the "fastest growing economy in the G7 for the first half of this year".

She says she recognises there is "still more to do" so people in all parts of the country benefit from growth, adding the numbers today are "encouraging" but they need to "build on that".

The government hasn't yet set a date for the autumn Budget, she says, but the "key focus" is to build on today's numbers.

Reeves welcomes "robust" growth from hospitality and retail, and says growth in construction reflects the government's focus on "getting Britain building again".

We're just a year into this government and there is more to do to get the economy "out of a rut", she says.

Let's hear what some economists are saying about this morning's figures now.

James Smith, economist at ING Bank, tells the BBC’s Today programme growth was always going to slow down in the second quarter.

“What we’ve got to remember is the first quarter was boosted by firms trying to get ahead of Donald Trump’s tariffs: big increase in exports, trying to get in before those tariffs came in.

"So we were always going to see that unwind, we also saw in the first quarter a lot of activity in the housing market before the stamp duty deadline in April, that stopped as well."

Fergus Jimenez-England, associate economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research says: "Despite this positive surprise, we expect growth to remain subdued in the third quarter of this year as uncertainty over fiscal policy and international trade continues to weigh on economic activity.

As outlined in our recent UK Economic Outlook, the Chancellor must build a substantial fiscal buffer in the Autumn Budget to avoid uncertainty plaguing growth into next year.

We've just been hearing from Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson over on BBC Breakfast, who tells the programme that the 0.3% figure is "slower and it's a lower figure than we would want", but says it's positive that the UK is seeing growth.

The government is not complacent, however, and wants to see "much more", she says, adding that there will be "a real focus" on growth and productivity at the Budget later this year.

"This government has stabilised the economy," she says, pointing to interest rate cuts, and says "we've seen more people in work" and inactivity falling, but reiterates "there's a lot more that we need to do".

Referencing her own ministerial portfolio, she says the government is focused on improving skills.

Digging a bit deeper into that quarterly figure of 0.3% growth - the information and communication sectors were the biggest contributor having increased by 2.0%, the ONS says.

Within that, the largest boost came from computer programming, consultancy and related activities, which grew by 4.1%.

On the other side, the largest negative contributor to growth in the second quarter was wholesale and retail trade repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, which fell by 0.9%, the ONS said.

This was mainly because of a decline in wholesale trade, excluding motor vehicles and motorcycles, which fell by 2.4%.

We've been reporting the headline figure of 0.3% between April and June because quarterly figures are more significant.

But we also get a figure each month and June's showed the economy grew by 0.4%.

However that comes after the economy contracted by 0.3% in April, the steepest monthly decline since October 2023, and shrank by a further 0.1% in May.

ONS director of economic statistics Liz McKeown said: "Growth slowed in the second quarter after a strong start to the year.

"The economy was weak across April and May, with some activity having been brought forward to February and March ahead of stamp duty and tariff changes, but then recovered strongly in June.

"Across the second quarter as a whole, growth was led by services, with computer programming, health and vehicle leasing growing."

Image source, PA Media

In addition to reaction from the chancellor, we've also now heard from shadow chancellor Mel Stride.

He says “any economic growth is welcome", but accuses Rachel Reeves of "economic vandalism", pointing to "business leaders saying that all indicators are flashing red" and economists "warning that Rachel Reeves has created a £50bn black hole in the public finances".

Stride says that the government has seen "taxes hiked, inflation almost double, unemployment rise, and growth stagnate. Looming tax rises will only make things worse and working people will pay the price."

“Rachel Reeves is taxing your future to fund her failure," he says.

Image source, PA Media

We can now bring you reaction from Chancellor Rachel Reeves to the latest GDP figures.

She says today's economic figures are "positive" and that they show a "strong start to the year and continued growth in the second quarter".

"But there is more to do to deliver an economy that works for working people," Reeves says, adding that the economy has the "key ingredients" but "has felt stuck for too long".

“That is why we’re investing to rebuild our national infrastructure, cutting back on red tape to get Britain building again and boosting the national minimum wage to make work pay. There’s more to do and today’s figures only fuel my ambition," she says.

Here's how that headline figure of 0.3% growth for the second quarter of the year fits into how the UK economy has been faring over the last couple of years.

Last quarter saw 0.7% growth, so while today's figure is smaller than that and means the economy has slowed down, it hasn't stopped growing.

UK no longer fastest growing economy in G7published at 07:20 BST 14 August

07:20 BST 14 August

Faisal Islam
Economics editor

Today's marked slowing of the growth in the economy will stop the government from boasting that the economy is the fastest growing in the G7.

But it was expected to slow notably more, to near stagnation.

In the event, a robust June, driven by a strong performance in the all important service sector, suggests some of the pessimism was overdone.

This is still a slowdown on the first quarterpublished at 07:16 BST 14 August

07:16 BST 14 August

Dharshini David
Deputy economics editor

The government's number one mission is to grow the economy, but even though the figures for the second quarter will be a relief for the chancellor, being better than expected, there’s still been a slowdown compared to the first quarter.

And taking account of population growth, GDP expanded by a modest 0.2% per person over the second quarter. While much of the service sector performed well, there was disappointment for the retail sector, which has grappled with cautious household spending and higher taxes.

And the still-modest growth over the last quarter as a whole is a reminder that our performance across recent years has been underpowered- something the chancellor has said she’ll be looking at tackling again, come the autumn Budget

Growth in the latest quarter was driven by increases of 0.4% in services and 1.2% in construction, while the production sector fell by 0.3%, the ONS release says.

Other factors are that some activity was brought forward to February and March ahead of changes to stamp duty in April and announced US tariff changes.

Jennifer Meierhans
Business reporter

That's a better figure than economists had expected but it means economic growth had slowed from 0.7% the first three months of the year to 0.3% in the second quarter.

The UK economy grew by 0.3% between April and June, official figures show.