UK economy rebounds as Rishi Sunak says confidence is returning

BBC: The prime minister has said “confidence is returning” after official figures showed the economy grew by more than expected in January.

Rishi Sunak said the data confirmed the government’s plan is “the right one and we need to stick to it”.
The economy expanded by 0.3 percent in January, rebounding from a sharp fall in December.

Higher school attendance and the return of Premier League football after the World Cup helped boost the figure. The data comes ahead of the Budget next Wednesday when Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will set out the government’s growth plans.

January’s growth followed a 0.5 percent contraction in the economy during December. However, the ONS figures also showed that the economy stagnated in the November to January period compared with the previous three months.

Sunak added that the data showed the economy is “better than people had feared”.
But Rachel Reeves, Labour’s shadow chancellor, said: “Today’s results show our economy is still inching along this Tory path of managed decline.”

Darren Morgan from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which collects and publishes the data, said the main factors behind January’s growth were “the return of children to classrooms, following unusually high absences in the run-up to Christmas, the Premier League clubs returned to a full schedule after the end of the World Cup and private health providers also had a strong month”.

“Postal services also partially recovered from the effects of December’s strikes.”

In education, school absences rose in December due to a spike in winter flu, Covid-19 as well as rising rates of Strep A, which can lead to scarlet fever.

The return of more children to school helps to boost the economy as it is deemed to increase the output of the education sector. The ONS said the education sector grew by 2.5 percent in January following a fall of 2.6 percent the month before.

Activity in arts, entertainment and recreation also grew, mainly due to the return of Premier League football.