Hospitality spending increases as UK avoids recession

Spending in UK pubs and restaurants rose in early February, as data reveals that the UK avoided recession in 2022.

Office for National Statistics Figures revealed that spending in pubs and restaurants increased above levels recorded before the Pandemic in the week to February 5 2023. This was the first increase above the pre-COVID baseline (the February 2020 average) recorded since early December 2022.

The figures also revealed that, despite a year marred by rail strikes and deflated consumer confidence, the UK narrowly avoided a recession in 2022.

Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.5% in December 2022, following growth of 0.1% in November. UK GDP remained broadly flat in the three months to December.

A recession is defined as when an economy records a shrink in economic output for three consecutive months.

However, the report highlighted a number of other concerns: Energy prices remain the biggest worry for a fifth of businesses, followed by inflation of goods and services prices, and falling demand. In late January, nearly two-fifths of businesses said they had taken some form of action to reduce their energy costs in the three months prior.

It was also revealed that a fifth of adults were affected by rail strikes in mid-January, a similar number to that reported over the Christmas and New Year period.

9 in 10 people surveyed also said that the cost-of-living crisis is an important issue facing the UK today.