Booming City of London's GDP soars past the £100 billion mark for first time
The annual economic output of the City of London has passed the £100 billion mark for the first time in its history, latest official figures show today.
London’s biggest financial district produced a GDP of £110.8 billion in 2023, up 11.5% in nominal terms from the £99.3 billion of 2022.
That puts the Square Mile’s GDP on a par with those of medium sized national economies such as Morocco or Slovakia.
It also makes the City one of the most concentrated engines of economic output in the world.
The latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows the City - famed for its financial, tech and professional services industries - had the biggest GDP of any local authority area in the UK despite having the second smallest resident population, just 13,462, after the Scilly Isles.
It was closely followed by Westminster, which includes most of the West End, on a GDP of £97.1 billion. The two central London power houses were far ahead of third placed Tower Hamlets, which includes much of Docklands, on £46.2 billion.
Fourth was Camden, which covers parts of the West End and “Midtown” including Covent Garden and Holborn, with £41.6 billion.
The biggest local authority outside London was Leeds with a GVA of £39.3 billion followed by Birmingham on £38.9 billion and Manchester with £38.04 billion.
London as a whole saw its GDP rise in nominal terms by 8% from £572 billion to £617 billion. That makes its economy rank alongside Poland in national terms, just outside the top 20 biggest economies in the world.
It also puts London to become a $1 trillion economy within the next few years.
The south east had the second biggest output of any UK region with output of £391 billion, followed by the north west on £270 billion and the east region with £229 billion.
However in real terms, adjusted for inflation, London’s output fell 0.5% in 2023, a year when the Russian full scale invasion of Ukraine forced up the rate of inflation triggering a painful cost of living crisis.
London had the highest GDP per head in 2023 at £69,077.