Chancellor Gordon Brown received a boost today after economic growth last year proved stronger than first thought.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) now places Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in 2002 at 1.8 per cent - higher than an earlier estimate of 1.6 per cent but still the weakest in a decade.

The upward revision comes after output in the service sector turned out to be stronger than expected, rising from last month's 2.5 per cent estimate to 2.7 per cent.

Despite the improvement, growth in services was the weakest since 1992 because of deceleration in areas such as post and telecommunications.

Yesterday's annual GDP figure was the second revision by the ONS after it originally estimated growth of 1.7 per cent. That was scaled back to 1.6 per cent last month.

The figure was slightly better than Mr Brown's forecast of 1.6 per cent - cut from initial hopes of 2 to 2.5 per cent in November's pre-budget report.

He has pencilled in growth of 2.5 to 3 per cent in 2003 but analysts believe the Chancellor will be forced into another revision in next month's Budget.

Investec chief economist Philip Shaw said: "Last year was not particularly encouraging but it could have been a lot worse without the interest rate cuts.

"We think 2.5 per cent is looking increasingly optimistic."