The UK has grown at a fast pace in the first three months of the year, and it is welcome news from a Labor government desperate to be good at launching its economic commitments.

The labor force will now point to 0.7% of first-quarter GDP as evidence of the hardhouse starting to pay off in the reforms of Nigel Farage and under pressure from its own MPs on taxes and expenditures.

After Labor came to power last year, there were two morbid quarters, shouting out its terrible economic legacy. GDP growth was only 0.1% in the last three months of the year.

The National Bureau of Statistics said the strongest driving force for growth in the first quarter of 2025 came from the service industry, and while manufacturing also contributed positively, output rose by 0.7%. The construction of labor-dependent new houses is flat.

It's easy to see these relatively optimistic figures as "before" pictures - a snapshot of the British economy ahead of Donald Trump's trade tariffs. Indeed, some analysts warn that businesses may have pushed activity into the first quarter to lead the looming tariff blitz.

But the U.S.-China deal earlier this week made trade pictures significantly scare. Even before that, the Bank of England estimated the impact on UK growth would be manageable by 0.3% within three years, while lower commodity prices would help with inflation.

Of course, Trump’s unstable attitude means everything that may change at a press conference. However, after negotiations with the White House, the U.S. total tax collection on China totaled 30%, and a world that reached 10% in the UK should be easier to manage than the world where the two major economic powers effectively operate the trade embargo.

Meanwhile, Reeves' controversial £25 billion employer National Insurance Contribution (NICS) came into effect only in April after collecting data released on Thursday. But if the policy will lead to a sudden wave of layoffs, then these policies seem to have begun to appear more clearly in the investigation of the job market.

Recent labor market figures have indeed shown a significant slowdown, but have been well underway. The NICS changes are likely to appear in a combination of weaker wage growth, higher prices and slower hiring, but so far there is at least no indication that this could involve a job crisis warned by some business groups.

It is also worth recalling that the public spending splurge that Reeves plans to plan for the coming year will hopefully boost economic growth, but it has not yet appeared, so this is potential upside. The cuts in interest rates last Thursday should be another prop for demand.

There are good reasons to be alert to growth in the coming months, and a forward-looking survey of business and consumer confidence points to the wrong direction.

But after a month or two, looking at the latest GDP data, Rachel Reeves can correctly make himself optimistic.