Business investment in the UK has grown by less than half the pace of the US since 2019, highlighting a widening divergence between the two countries in a key driver of productivity and economic growth.
Preliminary figures published alongside GDP data on Thursday showed that UK business investment was up 11 per cent in the first quarter of this year compared with Q4 2019, before the pandemic, according to official data. This is less than half the pace of the 28 per cent rise in US non-residential private domestic investment over the same period, with AI being a driver of capital spending.
This comes as new figures published on Sunday by the accountancy and advisory firm BDO showed that UK midsized businesses had paused investment plans because of the impact of the war in Iran.