THE UK’S economic recovery hopes were boosted when official figures revealed that the pace of growth accelerated faster than expected in the third quarter of 2011.

GDP increased by 0.5 per cent in the three months to the end of September, representing a gain on the 0.1 per cent rise in the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed. Economists had predicted a figure of between 0.3 per cent and 0.4 per cent.

The figures will help ease some of the fears about the strength of the recovery.

But the growth is still below its long-term average and economists warn the latest figures were flattered as GDP played catch-up after the previous quarter.

But the ONS said that the economy has grown by 0.6 per cent over the previous two quarters, which gives a clearer picture of the underlying trends. This means the economy is growing at half the speed of long-term trends, which have seen it expand at an average of 0.6 per cent a quarter in recent decades. – (Reuters)