Sky News presenter Anna Jones delivered the latest GDP data from the Office for National Statistics, revealing that the UK economy shrank by -0.01% in January. Describing this as a “worry” for Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Jones noted that “many of her numbers depend on good growth” and turned to business and economics correspondent Paul Kelso to help explain the figures.
Kelso pointed out, “They show us in the first month of the year, January, the economy contracted. Growth fell by -0.01%. The consensus was for growth of 0.1%, so it’s not much either side of zero, but being on the wrong side of zero is where nobody wants to be.” He also highlighted that in December, the economy had grown by 0.4%, which was slightly surprising. However, the last two quarters of 2024 had shown flat growth, and this new data was not what the Chancellor or British businesses had hoped for.
