"The slight downward revision to gross domestic product in Q4 is disappointing, although of course this is fairly old news now and it looks as though the economy recovered somewhat in the first quarter," said Vicky Redwood, an economist at Capital Economics.
"The data available so far for the first quarter indicate that the economy is likely to have returned to growth, but only very modestly. The PMI surveys are pointing to a meagre 0.3 per cent expansion, which would merely make up for the lost output in the final quarter of last year," said Chris Williamson, an economist at Markit.