THE rate of growth in the eurozone doubled to 0.6 per cent in the opening three months of this year, significantly ahead of the UK’s 0.4 per cent pace of expansion.

The sharp acceleration of eurozone growth is likely to come as a relief to Scottish exporters, given the scale of their sales to markets in the single currency zone.

UK gross domestic product figures published earlier this week showed that manufacturing output fell by 0.4 per cent as overall economic growth slowed to 0.4 per cent in the first quarter from 0.6 per cent in the final three months of last year.