Kevin Brown of Scottish Friendly

This growth was seen across all major sectors, with a particularly strong rebound in manufacturing, construction, and professional services. While monthly figures can fluctuate, this rise, coupled with positive business surveys, suggests continued solid growth in the third quarter of 2024.

Despite this positive news, experts have shared tempered expectations, predicting that growth will likely slow compared to the first half of the year.

Kevin Brown, savings specialist at Scottish Friendly, said: “It is encouraging to see that GDP has managed to breathe some wind back into its sails.

“With inflation ticking back up and a potentially significant Budget looming, the prospects for many UK households were beginning to look slightly concerning. However, the outlook is far from assured.

“Growth is clearly fragile at the moment. We’ll have to see what the Chancellor’s budget contains before we get a really clear picture for what the rest of the year has in store. That being said, with the Monetary Policy Committee working towards lower interest rates there is set to be some relief moving forward for hard-pressed households.

“This relief won’t be shared by savers who will see diminishing returns on their cash. For short-term funds for a rainy day putting money aside into cash is important, but anything longer term could be better placed in investments to stand the best chance of potentially greater returns.”

Matt Swannell, chief economic advisor to the EY ITEM Club, added: “Monthly GDP data can be noisy, so it is difficult to place too much emphasis on individual outturns

” But with August’s month-on-month gain, alongside business survey data that has signalled decent private sector activity growth in September, the UK remains on track for quarterly growth of around trend in Q3. Nevertheless, this will likely be some way below the above-trend rates seen in H1 2024.”