The UK economy grew by 0.7% between July and September, the Office for National Statistics said.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the latest gross domestic product (GDP) figures on Thursday.

Economists had been expecting to see growth pick up to 0.7% for the third quarter – between July and September – following growth of 0.5% in the second quarter.

The AI spending boom was a contributor to higher GDP in July, with the ONS revealing that many of the businesses reporting the largest turnover were involved in activities related to AI and cloud computing.

ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said of the latest data: “The economy grew robustly in the third quarter almost entirely due to strong and widespread growth in the services sector.

“Within services, computer programming again increased strongly, as it has all year, registering its fastest growth in the last three years. We continue to see evidence that AI linked businesses helped to boost this sector.”

Growth has also been boosted by business investment, with spending on areas such as technology, infrastructure and defence becoming a key source of growth in the economy, experts say.

This is helping to offset the impact of higher energy prices on households and businesses since the start of the Iran war.