{"id":766660,"date":"2026-09-10T23:40:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T23:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/766660\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T23:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T23:40:25","slug":"uk-economic-growth-set-to-peter-out-as-consumers-swap-shops-for-pubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/766660\/","title":{"rendered":"UK economic growth set to peter out as consumers swap shops for pubs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

UK economic growth is set to have ground to a halt in July, as consumers swapped spending in shops for drinking in pubs amid the heatwaves and Fifa World Cup, economists think. <\/p>\n

Most economists are expecting gross domestic product (GDP) to have shown no growth in July, when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) releases its next dataset on Friday. <\/p>\n

It would represent a downbeat start to the leadership of Andy Burnham, who was appointed Prime Minister during the month. <\/p>\n

It would also come after Chancellor John Healey insisted that there was an “optimistic story” about the UK economy that was “turning a corner”. <\/p>\n

In June, the UK economy grew 0.3% as hospitality and leisure firms received a boost from football fever and the prolonged hot weather. <\/p>\n

It meant GDP expanded by 0.4% during the second quarter of the year. <\/p>\n

However, economists have predicted that activity was muted in July as other parts of the economy lagged, offsetting the continued World Cup and hot weather boost to hospitality. <\/p>\n

In particular, retail and wholesale activity is predicted to have dipped by 0.3% for the month. <\/p>\n

Elliott Jordan-Doak, an analyst for Pantheon Macroeconomics, said any decline was “more likely the result of consumers shifting spending to drinking in the pub than a sign of weakening in consumer spending growth”. <\/p>\n

\"Tuition<\/a> Flat GDP growth in July would represent a downbeat start to the leadership of Andy Burnham (Leon Neal\/PA) <\/p>\n

It indicates that households may have reprioritised rather than reduced overall spending, despite facing increased energy and fuel costs. <\/p>\n

Analysts for Investec said: “After a positive first half of the year, where the UK economy actually outperformed the rest of the G7, growing by 1%, we expect the third quarter will begin with a weaker performance. <\/p>\n

“Some evidence of this has already been seen in soft retail sales for the month, whilst we expect the rise in household utility bills due to the 13% uplift to the energy price cap would have had a dampening effect.” <\/p>\n

Economists for Deutsche Bank said they were expecting the economy to “slow from its current torrid pace of growth”. <\/p>\n

“The real income shock from the Middle East has yet to fully filter through the data,” they said. <\/p>\n

“One-offs that have buoyed the economy will also likely unwind. And some budget uncertainty could put households and businesses off from spending.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK economic growth is set to have ground to a halt in July, as consumers swapped spending in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":766661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[19306,84,5472,21489,62,1294,53348,2094,56,1893,54,55],"class_list":["post-766660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-andy-burnham","tag-business","tag-consumer-spending","tag-consumers","tag-economic-growth","tag-economy","tag-gross-domestic-product","tag-office-for-national-statistics","tag-uk","tag-uk-economy","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}