Experts believed the increase of 1.2% in the previous quarter was a bounce reflecting the economy exiting recession but that it has slowed down dramatically since then.
Allowing for the recovery in Q2 following the bad weather at the start of the year, the ONS said the underlying growth in Q3 is broadly similar to that in Q2. The growth in the third quarter is due to growth in each of the component aggregate series, namely services, construction and production.
Total services output rose 0.6% in the third quarter, compared with a rise of 0.6% in the previous quarter. The largest contribution to the growth in this quarter was from business services and finance and government and other services.
Total production output rose 0.6% in the third quarter of 2010, compared with an increase of 1.0% in the second quarter. Manufacturing made the largest contribution to the growth, where output rose 1.0% compared with an increase of 1.6% in the previous quarter.
Agriculture, forestry and fishing output decreased 0.3%, compared with an increase of 2.7% in the previous quarter.
Commenting, Brian Johnson, an insolvency practitioner at HW Fisher & Company chartered accountants, said: "Better than expected third quarter GDP but the key to the UK's economic recovery remains getting the banks to lend, and on this front nothing has changed.
"The refrain from both the Labour and Coalition Governments has been get the banks lending but neither has achieved anything of note and until this situation reverses it is hard to see how the economy will significantly strengthen.
"The economy may not collapse but right now no one knows where the growth that the Coalition Government wants to take up the slack from the public sector cuts is going to come from.
"Some 150,000 or so SMEs are still facing real difficulties and a large percentage of these are likely to go to the wall for the simple reason the banks won't lend. The Q3 figure must be welcomed but business and consumers should remain vigilant."
