GDP increase 'encouraging'

Gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2009, according to the Office of National Statistics.

This shows a revision from the preliminary estimate of 0.1 per cent, but still reveals a decrease of 3.3 per cent from the same quarter in 2008.

Manufacturing output grew by 0.8 per cent and output of production industries by 0.4 per cent. Both had shown a decrease the previous quarter.

Ian McCafferty, chief economic adviser at business lobbying organisation CBI, commented on the upward revision of the GDP, saying that the results illustrated "a slightly stronger exit from recession at the end of 2009, when we had the VAT cut and car scrappage scheme stimulus measures to help lift production and spending".

He said the figures were "encouraging", but emphasised that because of the bad weather at the start of the year, the results for the first quarter of 2010 could still be "quite weak".

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