UK economy grows at fastest rate for more than two years, boosted by AI investment

Between July and September, the economy expanded by 0.7%, accelerating from the previous three months, official figures , external show. The robust growth suggests a far more resilient economy than expected over the summer, despite the impact of higher energy prices from the Iran war.

Strong growth in the services sector - the largest part of the economy, which includes non-physical goods such as consultancy services and computer programming as well as hotels and restaurants - helped boost the numbers. Within services, computer programming registered its fastest growth for the past three years, helped by cloud computing and AI-linked spending.

Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the Office for National Statistics, said it was "possible growth could have been even stronger" if there hadn't been a war in the Middle East. "Despite a year where events around the world have pushed up costs here at home, our economy is growing, bringing hope for the future," he said.