UK economy grows 0.5% in Feb

The UK economy grew by an unexpected 0.5% in February as manufacturing, retail and the services sector all helped contribute to the positive performance.

Production output grew by 1.5% in February 2025, following a fall of 0.5% in January 2025 (revised up from a 0.9% fall in our previous publication), and grew by 0.7% in the three months to February 2025, with manufacturing output driving the monthly and three-month growths.

Construction output grew by 0.4% in February 2025, following a fall of 0.3% in January 2025 (revised down from a fall of 0.2% in our previous publication), but showed no growth in the three months to February 2025.

Monthly services output grew by 0.3% in February 2025, following unrevised growth of 0.1% in January 2025, and grew by 0.6% in the three months to February 2025.

Overall, the services sector is estimated to have grown by 0.6% in the three months to February 2025, compared with the three months to November 2024.

There was a rise in output in 11 of the 14 subsectors in this period with the largest positive contributions coming from administrative and support service activities (up 1.9%), wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (up 1.0%), and information and communication (up 1.6%) in the three months to February 2025.

ONS Director of Economic Statistics, Liz McKeown, said: “The economy grew strongly in February with widespread growth across both services and manufacturing industries.Within services, computer programming, telecoms and car dealerships all had strong months, while in manufacturing, electronics and pharmaceuticals led the way and car manufacturing also picked up after its recent poor performance.

“Across the last three months as a whole, the economy also grew strongly with broad-based growth across services industries.”