London (AFP)-l' British economy returns to growth in the first quarter of 2011, as planned, official data showed Wednesday, but economists warned that a weak outlook in deep reductions in government spending.
Gross domestic product (GDP) - the total value of goods and services produced in the economy - has increased by 0.5% in the first three months of 2011, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in a statement.
The economy has rebounded after a slowdown in abrupt and unexpected 0.5 per cent in the last three months of last year.
The NSO warned that growth has been largely unchanged since the third quarter of 2010, after freezing weather last December had taken a GDP estimated 0.5 percentage points in the fourth quarter.
"The figures suggest that underlying the activity in the economy stagnates fairly well," said Capital Economics Vicky Redwood Economist in response to the data.
Analysts have argued that the modest recovery was not yet strong enough to persuade the Bank of England to raise interest rates to combat high inflation, the concern about the impact of the deep state spending cuts and high prices of fuel.
"The gain of 0.5% is in line with consensus, but the increase to compensate for the decline of 0.5% in the fourth quarter - therefore GDP was flat in the last six months," capital VTB Economist Neil MacKinnon told AFP.
In the meantime, economic performance was 1.8 per cent more high between January and March, compared to the first quarter of 2010.
"In my opinion, is that the economic recovery this year is unlikely to be strong enough to justify a tightening of monetary policy, the tax reduction and the impact of high energy prices will be strong winds"said MacKinnon.
And Economist, IHS Global Insight Howard Archer described the dissemination of the data in the first quarter "disappointing".
"It is a somewhat disappointing performance, pointing to the economy being only standing together during the last two quarters."
He added: "this fuels concern on the underlying strength of the economy and its ability to resist the tax reduction."
The Bank of England voted this month to maintain his record of 0.50% low interest rates, as weak growth offset the worries of inflation.
Recent data showed that annual inflation in Britain dropped unexpectedly to 4.0% in March of 4.4% in February, reduce the pressure on the BoE to follow the European Central Bank to raise rates to combat the high prices.
