UK economy sees 0.3% growth in January

The main driver of this growth was the services sector, which grew 0.5%. Education had the biggest impact on this – growing by 2.5% following a fall of 2.6% in December, with school attendance levels returning to normal levels following a significant drop at the end of last year.

Transport and storage services, meanwhile, grew by 1.6% in the month coming after a fall of 10.5% in December, which was partly because of the impact of postal strikes. Additionally, the arts, entertainment and recreation sector grew by 3.4% - largely driven by sports, amusement and recreation activities which grew by 8.9% following the full return of the Premier League following the World Cup.  

Output in both the production and construction sectors, however, fell in the month – dropping by 0.3% and 1.7% respectively.   

Additionally, monthly GDP was 0.2% below what was seen prior to the Covid pandemic in February 2020.  

Looking more broadly, GDP was flat in the three months to January 2023 – with the services sector remaining unchanged over this period, while production grew by 0.3% and construction fell by 0.7%. Year-on-year monthly GDP also remained broadly flat in January 2023.