Has the OECD said the UK is on track to become the ‘fastest growing economy in Europe’?

“The OECD is confident that we're on track to become the fastest growing economy in Europe.”

In an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme [2:22:10] on Friday (10 January), culture secretary Lisa Nandy MP claimed that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had said the UK was “on track to become the fastest growing economy in Europe”.

This claim doesn’t appear to be supported by the OECD’s latest projections, which show several European countries with higher forecast GDP growth in 2025 and 2026 (the latest year for which the OECD has projections) than the UK.

We’ve contacted Ms Nandy’s office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to ask what her claim was based on. We haven’t yet heard back but will update this fact check if we do.

It’s possible Ms Nandy may have intended to reflect comments made by chancellor Rachel Reeves last month. Referring then to the latest OECD figures, Ms Reeves said it was projecting the UK would have the “fastest growing European economy in the G7”.

It’s true that the OECD currently forecasts that in both 2025 and 2026 the UK will have higher GDP growth (1.7% and 1.3% respectively) than France, Germany and Italy (the other three European G7 members). UK growth is also projected to be higher than that of Japan, but lower than the US and Canada, which make up the remaining members of the G7.

But looking at all European countries, several are forecast to have higher growth than the UK in the next two years, including Spain (2.3% and 2%), Denmark (2.5% and 1.7%) and Poland (3.4% and 3%).Ministers and Government departments must provide evidence for what they say, and ensure that any statistics and data they rely on to back up their claims are provided publicly in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics or relevant guidance.

If an MP makes a false or misleading claim on broadcast media they should take responsibility for ensuring it is appropriately corrected, and make efforts to ensure the correction is publicly available to anyone who might have heard the claim.