Another category – distribution, hotels and restaurants – also outstripped the average 0.7% quarterly growth rate for services.
But distribution, hotels and restaurants and the sector covering business services and finance showed zero growth on the month.
In services, which makes up more than 75% of the economy, the strongest growth was in distribution, hotels and restaurants, where output was up 1.7%.
First, the fastest-growing bits of the economy are also the lowest paying: distribution, hotels and restaurants grew by 1.2% in the first quarter.
And output from distribution, hotels and catering firms, was revised up to 1.7 per cent from 1.5 per cent, while growth across business services and finance firms was also revised higher to 0.6 per cent from 0.5 per cent.
The acceleration in growth comes mainly from distribution, hotels and restaurants, and transport and communication.
Distribution, hotels and catering as well as retail all saw negative growth of about 1%.
Of the growth of 0.7%, 0.2% came from "distribution, hotels and catering" (broadly the retail bit of the services industry).
Tourism did not perform as badly as feared last summer and, included in the figures for the "distribution, hotels and catering" sector, it grew by 1.1%.
The output of distribution, hotels and restaurants increased by 1.2% in the quarter - only slightly slower than at the end of last year.
