At least it’s an improvement.

And it may signal enough strength in the economic revival to avoid  the dreaded double-dip.

Data from the Office for National Statistics said the economy grew 0.4% between October and December in 2009.

But analysts remain cautious. Better-than-expected data was partly due to companies re-stocking at the end of 2009 after running down their inventories. And with fiscal tightening on the way, growth over the course of 2010 will be sluggish and bumpy.

Still 2010 is likely to be better than 2009 – the ONS confirmed that in total, the size of the economy declined by 4.9% in 2009, making it the worst year since records began in the 1950s.