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Growth in the Northern Ireland economy slowed at the start of 2022, official data suggests.

The experimental figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) allow comparisons across the devolved nations and nine English regions.

They suggest that in the first quarter of 2022, the NI economy expanded by 0.4% compared to the previous quarter.

That compared to growth of 1.2%, 1.4% and 3.1% in the preceding three quarters.

That strong performance through most of 2021 reflected a full reopening after coronavirus lockdowns.

It had been expected that growth would slow this year, as businesses and consumers deal with much higher energy prices, and some one-off public spending on Covid rolls off.

The ONS cautions that regional data is more volatile than national estimates and so needs to be carefully interpreted alongside economic trends both in the regions and in the UK.

Northern Ireland had showed some of the strongest growth among UK regions in the middle of last year, but for the most recent period, it showed the weakest growth.

The average growth in the UK in the first quarter was 0.8%, with London again showing the strongest growth of 1.2%.

The ONS figures are based on economic modelling; an alternative survey-based measure from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) will be published next month.