GDP grew by 0.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2011, helped by the business services and finance sector, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This was up from 0.1 per cent in the second quarter, beating analysts’ forecasts of 0.3 per cent.

Strong figures from services and production counteracted weaknesses in the construction sector.

The biggest contributor to growth was a 0.8 per cent gain in business services and finance.

This was the strongest quarterly increase for business services and finance for four years.

Service output rose by 0.7 per cent and production industries  rose by 0.5 per cent, compared to a fall of 1.2 per cent in the previous quarter.

However, the construction sector saw a small decline, falling by 0.6 percent compared to a rise of 1.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

The ONS said the growth was complicated by one-off factors in the second quarter such as the Royal Wedding.

“The interpretation of the estimate for Q3 is complicated by the special events in Q2 which are likely to have depressed activity in that quarter.

“As with 2010 Q4 and 2011 Q1 (affected by bad weather in Q4) it may be wise to look at 2011 Q2 and 2011 Q3 together rather than separately.

The third quarter results were not affected by the riots in August.

Azad Zangana, European economist at Schroders, said: “The UK economy appears to have recovered from the temporary factors that almost ground the economy to a halt in the second quarter.

“Looking ahead, this could be the strongest GDP number we see for a few quarters as leading indicators are pointing to a meaningful slowdown.”