However, a strong growth figure may not point to the UK's underlying economic health, as it is "flattered" by the impact of the weather-related disruption at the end of last year, warned Simon Kirby, at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
The think-tank on Wednesday put GDP growth for the first three months of this year at 0.7pc, which the Treasury said was in line with the 0.8pc forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent fiscal watchdog.
However, Mr Kirby said: "The underlying growth rate is weak. The average rate of growth in the final quarter of last year and first quarter of this year was 0.1pc."
The ONS also released its production index ? the wider measure of factory output, which includes more volatile data for mining and oil and gas extraction.
That index looked worse than the manufacturing data, with activity down 1.2pc month-on-month. However, economists said the wider measure was distorted by the impact of maintenance work in the North Sea.
The underlying profitability of oil and gas producers was underlined by ONS figures showing that their rate of return was 44pc in the final quarter of 2010. For businesses other than the North Sea producers, it was 11pc.
Separately, new data showed private sector pay growth has fallen to its lowest since records began in 2004, at just 0.1pc. Public sector pay held up better, payment processor VocaLink reported, growing 1.7pc in the year to March.
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