LONDON, (Reuters) - British factory output grew at its fastest pace for a calendar quarter in nearly 15 years during the first three months of 2014, official data showed on Friday, in news likely to support hopes that the economy is rebalancing.
The Office for National Statistics said that manufacturing output grew by 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2014, up from 0.9 percent in the three months to February.
This was the strongest growth for a three month period since October 2010, and the best calendar quarter since the third quarter of 1999, as the sector recovers from a steep slump after the financial crisis.
Manufacturing has lagged behind other sectors of the economy, and is still 7.6 percent below its level in the first quarter of 2008, when overall economic output peaked.
But the ONS revised down its estimate for growth of the broader industrial sector to 0.7 percent from the 0.8 percent pencilled into first-quarter gross domestic product estimates published late last month.
But the revision, when combined with an upward revision to quarterly construction output, would have only a negligible effect on first-quarter GDP overall, the ONS said.
Industrial output slipped 0.1 percent on the month in March slightly less than forecasts of a 0.2 percent decline, the Office for National Statistics said.
The economy grew 0.8 percent in the first three months of 2014.
Figures also released by the ONS on Friday showed that Britain's trade deficit in goods narrowed in March.
(Reporting by Andy Bruce and David Milliken)