Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said the UK’s economy is “outpacing Germany, France and the United States”.

The UK’s economy did grow more rapidly than those countries if comparing the first quarter of 2024 with the last quarter of 2023.

However. when comparing growth levels over the past year, the UK’s economy has outpaced Germany but is well behind both the US and France.

Forecasts by the International Monetary Fund suggest the UK will grow more slowly than the US and France this year.

The size of a country’s economy is generally measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Between the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 GDP in the UK rose by 0.6%. That was faster than 0.4% recorded in the US, 0.2% in Germany and 0.2% in France.