Earlier this month the ONS’ first estimate of economic growth also came in at 0.5% for Q3, ahead of expectations. Many commentators had predicted it would fall when revisions were made.
In today’s report, it said that the headline growth of 0.5% was “reasonably solid” given the previous three quarters’ performance and the turmoil being caused by the eurozone crisis.
Growth over the last year has been 0.5%, averaging 0.3% over the last two quarters.
The services industry, the UK’s most dominant sector, supplied the lion’s share of the growth, the ONS said.
UK gross domestic product increased by 0.5% in volume terms in the third quarter of 2011.
The ONS said output of the production industries rose by 0.4%, within which manufacturing rose 0.2%.
Output of the service industries also increased by 0.6%, but output of the construction industry fell by 0.2% amid falling demand.
One bright spot was the business services and finance sector, which grew 1.0% in Q3 up from an increase of 0.3% in Q2.
However, the ONS said that underlying growth is “weak”, with consumers continuing to struggle financially, with uncertainty over employment affecting confidence.