The UK’s monthly gross domestic product (GDP) displayed modest growth in April 2023, increasing by an estimated 0.2% following a 0.3% decrease in March 2023, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Interestingly, this slight uptick places the monthly GDP 0.3% higher than its pre-coronavirus levels recorded in February 2020.
In the broader economic landscape, the nation’s GDP showed a meager growth of 0.1% in the three months to April 2023 when compared with the previous three months to January 2023.
A sector-wise breakdown reveals that services saw a dip of 0.1% in the same period, while production and construction sectors showed growth of 0.2% and 1.6%, respectively.
The services sector, however, showed promise in April 2023, with an output growth of 0.3%. This contrasts with the production sector, which fell by 0.3%, and the construction sector, which decreased by 0.6%. Despite these mixed performances, the overall monthly GDP recorded a 0.5% increase compared with April 2022.
Drilling further into the services sector data, the April 2023 numbers indicate an increase of 0.3%, recovering from a fall of 0.5% in the preceding month. Out of the 14 sub-sectors within services, 10 showed positive growth.
The largest contributor to the rise in services was the wholesale and retail trade, including repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sub-sector, which grew by 1.0%. Following closely was a 1.3% rise in information and communication, bouncing back from a 1.1% fall in March.
Despite the positive growth in some areas, a major setback came from the human health and social work activities sub-sector, which saw a fall of 0.9% in April 2023. The sector suffered mainly due to strikes by junior doctors which occurred over four days in the month.
Looking at consumer-facing services, the output rose by 1.0% in April 2023, after falling by 0.8% in the previous month. Despite this growth, consumer-facing services in April 2023 remained 8.7% below their pre-coronavirus levels, whereas all other services were 2.0% above the levels seen before the pandemic.
