It marks a 0.8% drop in economic activity from the third quarter of 2011 when GDP expanded by 0.6%.
The ONS figures also show that the economy grew by 0.9% during 2011.
The quarterly fall in GDP was the first since the last three months of 2010 when freezing weather was blamed for a 0.5% drop.
Chancellor George Osborne, said the figures were disappointing but not a surprise.
He said: “They are not entirely unexpected because of what’s happening in the world and what’s happening in the eurozone crisis.
“The truth is that dealing with those problems is made more difficult by the situation in the eurozone.”
The main downward drivers of economic activity was a 0.9% fall in manufacturing, a 4.1% drop in electricity and gas production as the warm weather caused people to turn down heating and a 0.5% fall in the construction sector.
The figures come a day after Sir Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, said that the UK faced an arduous path to economic recovery.
On Tuesday the International Monetary Fund also cut the growth forecast for the UK economy in 2012 to 0.6% from 1.6%.
Ben Thompson, managing director at Legal & General Mortgage Club, said: “So much is in the balance at the moment and there can't have been too many times historically when there has been such a high level of interest in one quarterly set of results.
“Psychologically the thin margin between growth and decline makes so much difference right now in terms of confidence.
“The galling thing is that just as there are signs emerging that the UK's austerity plans might be starting to work, the plight of the eurozone will now dictate how things play out, so to a large extent is now out of this government's hands.”
Thompson added that in terms of the housing market, the figures couldn’t possibly dent already battered consumer confidence any further.
“What we will however see is a market that at some stage will recover very slowly, led by the fortunate and confident borrowers who can plan with a degree of certainty.
“Many others are already locked out of the market, or will continue to sit on their hands until such time as they feel good again. On the evidence of these figures we may need to wait a while.”
