Official figures show that Britain's economy grew slightly faster than expected in the final quarter of last year to record the strongest full-year performance since 2004.
The Office for National Statistics said the economy grew 0.6% in the final quarter of 2007, easing from 0.7% in Q3. The latest figure represented the lowest quarterly growth rate since Q3 2006.
The full-year growth rate came in at 3.1%, the strongest since 2004, when the economy grew 3.3%.
The figures are unlikely to alter expectations that the Bank of England will cut interest rates soon, but they may reduce the amount of monetary easing necessary to shore up the UK economy this year.
The main factor behind the slowdown in growth was the weakest quarterly performance in business and financial services since Q2 2003 in a sign that the credit crunch harmed activity.
Meanwhile, details of the Bank of England's last meeting show that only one member of its key committee opposed the decision to keep interest rates at 5.5%. The other eight policymakers argued that the short-run inflation outlook had 'worsened markedly'.
Minutes of the January 9-10 meeting showed that the Monetary Policy Committee had judged that while risks to the economy had risen since its last forecasts in November, short-term price pressures had also gone up.
