The Bank of England has been proved wrong again as the British economy outperformed the Bank's forecasts for the first three months of the year.

Quarterly real gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.1pc from January and March, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This matched the consensus expectation among economists of 0.1pc growth but exceeded the Bank of England's forecasts of 0pc across the first quarter. 

But on a monthly basis, GDP in March fell by 0.3pc. This was a far larger drop than the consensus forecast of 0pc growth.

The quarterly growth rate was front-loaded in January, when GDP rose by 0.5pc. In February, growth was flat.

The March data lays bare the impact of successive public sector strikes.

Darren Morgan, ONS director of economic statistics, said: "Across the quarter as a whole growth was driven by IT and construction, partially offset by falls in health, education and public administration, with these sectors affected by strikes."

Without the impact of strikes, quarterly GDP growth in the first three months of the year would have been 0.2pc, the Bank said on Thursday.

Read the latest updates below.