UK GDP is now 1.8% higher than its pre-pandemic levels, having?increased by 0.2% in Quarter 2 (Apr to Jun) 2023

HM Treasury has recently posted statistics based on the data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS). The ONS analysis showed that UK GDP has grown almost 25% since 2010. It’s the highest indicator among European G7 countries.

In the given rating, UK is surpassed by the USA and Canada, with approximately 35% and 30% growth over the period, respectively.

As for the shorter term changes, UK GDP is estimated to have increased by 0.3% in Q1 2023 and 0.2% in Quarter 2. Its growth compared to the pre-pandemic levels equals to 1.8% instead of earlier estimations of -0.2%.

Overall, quarter-on-quarter GDP growth in the G7 countries slightly accelerated to 0.5% in Q2 2023, compared with 0.4% in Q1.

However, there’s a mixed picture of growth among G7 countries. While GDP growth increased noticeably in Japan (to 1.5% in Q2 2023 vs. 0.9% in Q1) and in France (to 0.5%, compared to 0.1%), GDP significantly contracted in Italy in Q2 2023 (-0.3%) following a growth of 0.6% in Q1.

Economic growth accelerated slightly in the US and the UK (to 0.6% and 0.2% in Q2, respectively, compared with 0.5% and 0.1% in Q1). At the same time, GDP slowed in Canada (to 0.3% in Q2, compared with 0.8% in Q1) and remained flat in Germany in Q2, after contracting in the two previous quarters.

It was earlier estimated that UK needs payment infrastructure upgrade to boost GDP by $3.8bn by 2026. Upgrading legacy payments infrastructure and increasing real-time payments adoption can potentially bring sweeping changes over the next few years, unlocking additional economic output.