Second quarter (Q2) figures released today by the Office of National Statistics show GDP quarterly growth of 0.4%, up from 0.2% in Q1.

Annual growth is still only 1.3% - a miniscule 0.1 percentage point increase from 1.2% in Q1.

Looking at the bigger picture, workers have just lived through the most dismal decade on record for GDP growth.

With interest rates rising and wages continuing to stagnate, things just keep getting harder for workers in the UK.

And let’s not forget the very real risk crashing out of the EU without a deal in place, which would hit working people the hardest.

As Frances O Grady said today, “The latest figures cap a dismal decade for the economy. But we should not accept weak growth as the new normal – it’s the result of bad management of the economy. There has been too little investment and a failure to focus on getting wages rising”.

That’s why we’re calling on the government to reverse its austerity policies immediately and take urgent action to invest and support the economy.

What’s in the latest release

The chart below compares recent outcomes with long run averages for quarterly and annual growth (these are 0.6% for the former and 2.5% for the latter, calculated from quarterly records that start in the 1950s).