- UK GDP fell 0.1% month-on-month in January, following 0.4% in December

- That reflects growth across all three key sectors

- Services output grew 0.1% month-on-month

- Construction output fell 0.2% month-on-month

- Production fell 0.9% month-on-month

- GDP had been expected to rise 0.1% month-on-month (Trading Economics)

Nicholas Hyett, Investment Manager, Wealth Club:

"This is not the news the Chancellor would have wanted before this month's Spring statement, with the economy shrinking when it had been expected to show modest growth.

The slowdown has been driven by a big slowdown in manufacturing output - unsurprising given the very uncertain outlook for exports with ever changing tariffs. Services too has slowed dramatically, particularly in sectors like accommodation and food services which expect to be hit hard by higher living wage and employer national insurance contributions in April.

That's the really worrying thing about these numbers. Tariffs and increased labour costs were more worries than reality in January, the month covered by these numbers. Those worries will soon be transforming into realities. That leaves plenty of room for economic growth to deteriorate further, with far fewer catalysts to spark an economic recovery. We could be at the start of a long slow slide into recession."

Ends

For further information contact:

Jo Thorne: jo.thorne@wealthclub.co.uk

Wealth Club

Wealth Club was set up in 2016 by former Hargreaves Lansdown director Alex Davies. The aim was to make it easier for investors to find authoritative information on - and invest in - tax-efficient investments (VCTs, EIS, SEIS and AIM IHT ISAs).

Today we are the UK's largest non-advisory investment service of its kind. Over 65,000 are now members and circa 13,000 investors have invested more than £1.5+ billion through us.

We are the UK's largest broker of tax-efficient investments.

We have also launched our own Managed Portfolios to help wealthier and more experienced investors make more of their mainstream investments (ISA, SIPP and General Investment Account, or GIA).

And, in 2024, we were the first to offer a supermarket for private markets funds for private investors (provided you can qualify as High Net Worth or Sophisticated).