UK growth in the second quarter has been revised up slightly in the latest official figures, which also show the economy regained its pre-recession peak in output earlier than thought.

But economists did not believe the revisions to the gross domestic product data, published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics, changed the fundamental picture that the UK recovery had been weak.

The ONS said yesterday that UK GDP had risen by 0.9 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the three months to June, rather than 0.8 per cent. But first-quarter expansion was revised down from 0.8 per cent to 0.7 per cent.

With changes to methodology, such as the inclusion of research and development expenditure, GDP in the second quarter is now estimated to have been 2.7 per cent, rather than just 0.2 per cent, above its peak in the opening three months of 2008, ahead of the recession.

The ONS now estimates that the pre-recession peak in output was regained in the third quarter of 2013, rather than during the three months to June this year.

Samuel Tombs, at consultancy Capital Economics, said the latest data had "not changed the fundamental picture that the economy's performance since the recession began in 2008 has been very weak by historical and international standards."