UK economy forecast to grow 2.0% in 2025, finance minister says

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s economy is forecast to grow by 2.0% next year, finance minister Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday, citing the latest projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The new figure compared with a growth forecast for 2025 of 1.9% in the OBR’s previous outlook published in March, when the former Conservative government delivered its last budget.

The OBR expects economic output to expand by 1.8% in 2026 and by 1.5% in 2027, Reeves said as she gave her first budget statement speech to parliament.

Those forecasts compared with the OBR’s previous expectations for growth of 2.0% and 1.8% in 2026 and 2027.

Growth in 2024 was upgraded to 1.1%, up from the previous forecast of 0.8% for this year.

Reeves said she would publish a new “Charter for Budget Responsibility” that will provide a detailed assessment of the growth impacts of Labour’s policies over the next decade.

(Reporting by David Milliken and Sachin Ravikumar; writing by Suban Abdulla, editing by Christina Fincher and Hugh Lawson)