England is working hard to restrain inflation and to speed up growth

Growth in the United Kingdom’s economy slowed to 0.1% in the July-to-September 2024-2025 period, official figures show, as car production slumped, reports BBC.

The most recent Bank of England rate decision saw a narrow vote to keep rates unchanged at 4%, in the wake of September 2025 inflation coming in unchanged at 3.8%, and below the expectation of an increase to 4%. This has raised expectations given the narrowness of the vote, 5-4 in favour of keeping rates unchanged that we could see the central bank cut rates next month to 3.75%. While the September undershoot is welcome amid an expectation that headline CPI may well have peaked, that doesn’t necessarily mean it could come down quickly.

The figure was below the 0.2% predicted by analysts, and is a blow to Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves - who has repeatedly said growth is her top priority - less than two weeks ahead of the budget in which she is widely expected to raise taxes.

The Office for National Statistics said there had been a "marked" fall in car production in September as a result of the cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover.

But even when this is taken out, other sectors of the economy showed weak growth.
While there was growth in services - which includes things like shops, restaurants, arts and entertainment and real estate - and construction, it was slower than in the previous quarter.

Consumer spending growth remains weak and economists predict this could continue to weigh on growth for the rest of the year.
The latest GDP figure marks a slowdown from the 0.3% growth seen between April and June, and the 0.7% expansion in the first three months of the year.

In September 2025 alone, the economy contracted by 0.1% with the JLR cyber attack having an impact.

The cyber attack began on 31 August 2025, and resulted in one of the UK's largest car makers halting production for five weeks.
The ONS said production output overall fell by 2% in September, and this was mainly caused by a 28.6% drop in car output following the attack.
Some analysts said the weaker-than-expected growth figures had boosted the chance of a rate cut from the Bank of England next month.

Rob Wood, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said data "all but seals a December rate cut" when added to the weak jobs figures that came out earlier this week.

For some businesses, the slow growth reflects the knock-on effect of last year's Budget, which raised National Insurance contributions for employers, as well as increasing the national living wage.