The chancellor, George Osborne welcomed the return to growth, which followed a contraction of 0.5% at the end of 2010, saying, "It is good news that the British economy is growing. It is particularly good news that manufacturing is growing so strongly, when we have had such an unbalanced economy in recent years, and manufacturing has not done so well.

Ed Balls, Labour's shadow chancellor, responded: "If George Osborne thinks zero growth over six months is good news and a sign that the recovery is on track then he is more out of touch and out of his depth than I feared. "

John Cridland, CBI Director-General, said, "We are seeing a modest rebound in economic growth, recouping the loss in output caused by the bad weather in the fourth quarter of last year. Growth of 0.5% in the first quarter is in line with our expectations and, while encouraging, it does reaffirm our view that the recovery remains slow and sluggish.

"The main reason the growth figures were not stronger is the contraction in construction, with the overhang into January from the bad weather. February's construction figures show some recovery."

Commenting on the latest GDP figures, Graeme Leach, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors said:
"The preliminary GDP figures are a very mixed bag with grounds for both optimism and pessimism. Pessimists point to the fact that GDP is stagnant with output unchanged over the past 6 months. This is very much in line with the IoD's long held view that this recovery will be more L than V shaped. Today's GDP numbers add further weight to the case against an interest rate rise. But the optimists can't be ignored either. Leaving aside the construction sector – which contracted sharply – overall services output rose strongly (by 0.9 per cent), although this did follow a decline of 0.6 per cent in the previous quarter.

Graeme Leach also said:
"We shouldn't place too much emphasis on the Q1 data. The more important figure will be Q2 when we begin to see the squeeze on real incomes really kick-in and what effect this has on consumer spending, together with the implementation of the public spending squeeze".