The UK economy grew by 4.8% between April and June as lockdown restrictions eased, in line with expectations, according to figures released on Thursday by the Office for National Statistics.
This was close to the 5% growth predicted by the Bank of England last week and left the economy 4.4% below its pre-pandemic peak.
In the month of June, GDP rose 1%, which was ahead of the 0.8% expected by economists. However, May’s increase was revised down to 0.6% from 0.8%.
The services sector was the biggest contributor to growth. In June, health, hospitality, and advertising services were the main contributors to the growth in services.
The ONS said visits to GPs increased in June compared with recent months, while NHS Test and Trace services and vaccine schemes across also continued to contribute positively to overall output levels in health.
ONS deputy national statistician Jonathan Athow said: “The UK economy has continued to rebound strongly, with hospitality benefiting from the first full month of indoor dining, while spending on advertising was boosted by the reopening of many services.”
ING economist James Smith said: “The latest UK GDP data confirms what we already knew – that the economy was on fire through the second quarter.
“Admittedly, a large part of the 4.8% quarterly growth is a simple function of the re-openings. And indeed, if we look at June data specifically, 0.45% of the 1% monthly growth came from health, which is linked to people visiting their doctor more.
“Still, quirks aside, we saw a clear increase in optimism among both consumers and businesses through the spring, and that will undoubtedly have helped drive a faster recovery in activity.”
