Faisal Islam: Why the UK economy is surprisingly resilient

The UK economy grew at its fastest rate for more than two years in the three months to September.

"Top gear" and "strikingly strong" were among the descriptions of the 0.7% growth offered by the economists who track every minor murmur of Britain's economy.

It is an upgrade on "solid" and "resilient", and in turn a world away from "hardest hit by the Iran War".

Against the backdrop of the world's biggest disruption to energy flows, rising market borrowing costs - and the cruel summers since the pandemic - it is impressive growth.

It should reset some of the swirl of self-reinforcing negativity.

The UK's economic growth has averaged less than 0.1% in the four Q3s [ie July to September] since the pandemic.

The average prediction just months ago for this July to September was just 0.1%.

Even the UK's official forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) effectively pencilled in 0.3% at the Budget just 3 weeks ago.

Copyright for this text belongs to BBC.