Although this slightly undershot consensus expectations of 0.6% total growth for the year was a still healthy by developed world standards 2.7%.
The services sector grew at 0.8% in the quarter while agriculture grew 1.3%. In contrast output construction output decreased by 1.8% in and production by 0.1%.
The figures have done little to shake generally positive sentiment on the UK economy.
“The UK economy is still advancing at a steady pace, having sustained strong growth since the beginning of 2013,” said Rain Newton-Smith, CBI director for economics.
“Today’s figures confirm that growth slowed slightly compared with the previous quarter. Service sector growth remains robust, but manufacturing continues to struggle with weaker export orders, and construction output has fallen in the last three months. “The UK should benefit from the fillip that quantitative easing will provide to the eurozone. However, this needs to go hand-in-hand with structural reforms, like making France's labour market more flexible and greater infrastructure investment in Germany,” Newton-Smith added.
“Despite a slowdown to 0.5% in the final quarter, the overall growth for 2014 of 2.6% suggests the economy is heading in the right direction, especially as it represents the fastest annual growth since 2007,” said Wealth Horizon CEO Chris Williams.
“However, concerns remain that it is simply debt-fuelled consumer spending holding up the economy, and if you take into account the widely recognized troubles of the Eurozone it would be foolish to think that the UK will continue to be unaffected. We are not out of the woods yet.”
“For investors however, there are still many opportunities to potentially make attractive returns, so it doesn’t pay to sit on the sidelines in cash,” Williams said.
