Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
While we wait for the UK GDP data to land at 7am, there are signs of improvement in the housing market.
A poll of UK surveyors has found that confidence is returning to the market, with expectations for sales and prices turning higher in December.
“The UK residential market remains in a prolonged soft patch, with December’s survey recording a sixth consecutive month of negative momentum in buyer enquiries. That said, there are tentative signs of a shift in sentiment beneath the surface.
“Near-term sales expectations have strengthened, and the twelve-month outlook has edged into more positive territory. The key test for 2026 will be whether borrowing costs ease on a sustained basis. If so, this could provide the catalyst needed to drive a recovery in buyer demand.”
This morning, we receive the latest GDP figures from here in the UK, with the economy set to have grown just 0.1% MoM in November, largely resulting from the continued resumption of JLR production as the recovery from last year’s cyber attack continues.
Such an anaemic pace of growth, though, is hardly a ringing endorsement of the UK’s economic prospects, not least considering that risks to the outlook remain tilted firmly to the downside, and that the fiscal ‘doom loop’ seems set to continue, with the government’s latest U-turns eroding as much as two-thirds of the headroom that Chancellor Reeves left herself at the November Budget.
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