Despite April\u2019s dip, the economy appears to have been more resilient in the face of the Middle East conflict than some analysts had feared.<\/p>\n
Rachel Reeves, who is expected to depart as chancellor on Monday when the PM-in-waiting, Andy Burnham, selects a new cabinet, is likely to take the data as fresh evidence that her economic plan was bearing fruit.<\/p>\n
Services output was up 0.3% over the month, the ONS said, but was partly offset by a 0.5% decline in production, which includes manufacturing, and a 0.8% fall in construction.<\/p>\n
The strongest contributor to monthly output was scientific research, the ONS said, which was up 5.1%.<\/p>\n
Over the three months to May \u2013 a period that tends to provide more stable data \u2013 GDP growth was up 0.7%, a modest slowdown from the 0.8% seen in the three months to April.<\/p>\n
Liz McKeown, the ONS director of economic statistics, said: \u201cThe economy recorded robust growth in the three months to May, though the pace eased slightly as the last two months showed a weaker picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, analysts pointed out that GDP still looks likely to be stagnant over the second full quarter of the year.<\/p>\n
Suren Thiru, chief economist of the ICAEW, said: \u201cThis dishearteningly weak rebound is unlikely to ease anxiety over the UK\u2019s economic health as the Iran conflict helped suppress activity in key sectors like construction and industrial production, despite a warm weather uplift to retail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reeves \u2013 who is expected to be replaced by Shabana Mahmood<\/a> \u2013 gave a defiant Mansion House speech this week, defending her record and insisting that she had put the economy on a more stable footing.<\/p>\n The International Monetary Fund recently upgraded its forecast for UK GDP growth <\/a>for the year as a whole, to 1%, up 0.2 percentage points from its April forecast<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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