Wendy Alexander said the economy is robust

These revealed quarterly growth of 0.8% and a 12 month increase of 2.7%.

While GDP figures exclude oil and gas production, they are seen by the executive as the best yardstick for measuring Scotland's performance against the rest of the UK.

Enterprise Minister Wendy Alexander said the statistics showed that the Scottish economy was in a "robust" state.

Ms Alexander said: "The Scottish Executive's long term aim is to sustain this and it is encouraging that independent commentators expect to see above trend growth next year."

The figures showed the Scottish construction sector was in the most favourable position.

It enjoyed an 8.1% growth in output, outstripping the overall growth in UK construction of 2.7%.

'Benefiting Scotland'

Scotland's production sector was in line with the rest of the UK at 1.6% growth, but the service sector grew by only 1.8% compared with 3.2% for the UK.

Scottish Secretary Dr John Reid said: "These latest figures....confirm what I have said previously - that it is misleading to suggest that the Scottish economy is in recession.

"They also confirm that Scotland's economy grew broadly in line with the UK's as a whole in the second quarter of this year."

Dr Reid said the statistics were evidence that Labour's policies on the economy and employment were "benefiting Scotland's economy as well as that of the UK".

The figures were issued by the Economics Advice and Statistics Division of the Executive's Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department.