Revised figures from the Office for National Statistics put UK real GDP growth at 0.5% between April and June 2026, nudging up 0.1 percentage points from the previous estimate.
The economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2026, the ONS announced on 30 September 2026, revising upward its earlier estimate of 0.4 per cent published on 13 August. Quarter 1 growth, covering January to March 2026, remained unrevised at 0.6 per cent.
The revision reflects additional survey, price and administrative data gathered since the first estimate, with the ONS applying all three approaches to measuring GDP — output, income and expenditure. The 30 September release was also identified by the ONS as the point at which revisions from 2025 onwards would be incorporated, in line with the 2026 Blue Book changes to the UK National Accounts.
Those Blue Book revisions are worth understanding in context. They lowered estimated nominal GDP levels in earlier years but raised the 2024 figure by 0.5 per cent, putting UK nominal GDP for 2024 at £2,905 billion. Average annual volume growth between 1998 and 2024 held at 1.8 per cent, with average quarterly growth at 0.5 per cent.
The monthly picture behind the quarterly figure was uneven. The first estimate recorded 0.3 per cent monthly growth in June 2026, no growth in May, and a 0.1 per cent fall in April.
GDP growth is a broad national measure. It doesn’t show how activity varied between sectors, regions or individual households, and the figures don’t by themselves establish the causes of growth or its effect on disposable income or employment. The estimate may also be revised again as further data become available.
Source: @ONS
UK economy grew 0.5% in second quarter of 2026, ONS confirms Quiz
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