Growth in March surged by 0.4%, following a 0.2% rise in February, resulting in a quarterly growth of 0.6%. The expansion was predominantly driven by the services sector, with manufacturing also contributing substantially to the growth.

While services output soared by 0.5% month-on-month, construction experienced a slight setback with a 0.4% decline. Production managed to grow by 0.2% during the same period.

Peter Arnold, EY UK chief economist, said: “With February’s growth also revised up (to 0.2%, from 0.1%), this meant that GDP rose by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter in Q1. The Q1 gain more than offset the small falls in output seen in H2 2023.

“The first cut of the expenditure data for Q1 showed strong contributions from investment and net trade, though the latter was again affected by flows of non-monetary gold. Consumer spending edged up, but the scale of the rebound was underwhelming, particularly given the larger pickup in distribution activity reported in the output data.”

Mr Arnold continued: “Early business survey data for Q2 has been positive, with the composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) reaching an 11-month high.

“Though consumers had a relatively slow start to the year, the EY ITEM Club expects them to lead the recovery, with lower inflation driving solid real income growth and the savings ratio likely to drop back from its recently high level.

“Therefore, the EY ITEM Club expects Q1 to mark the beginning of a sustained recovery in economic growth after two years of stagnation. However, with the lagged effect of tighter monetary policy still emerging and fiscal policy becoming progressively tighter, the recovery is likely to be steady rather than spectacular.”