Economic growth in the second part of 2014 has been revised up by government statisticians to a racy 0.9 per cent, from 0.8 per cent in a previous estimate.

The increase solidifies the UK’s place as one of the fastest growing industrialised economies in the world. On an annual basis, the economy grew 3.2 per cent between April and June.

Figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) also showed that the economy returned to its pre-recession peak in the third quarter of 2013, earlier than previously thought.

The biggest contribution to the revised figures was construction, revised up from no-growth to 0.7 per cent growth in the second quarter.

Responding to the news, chancellor George Osborne tweeted: “Good economic news today. GDP in Q2 revised up to 0.9%; biz investment up 11%. More evidence that tackling our problems head on works.”

John Hawksworth, PwC’s chief economist, said: “There was some good news on the composition of recent growth, with business investment particularly strong in the latest quarter.

“At the sectoral level, services continue to lead the way, with particular strength in communications, technology and business services sectors. These are the new powerhouses of the UK economy.”

“Overall, the new data suggest that UK GDP followed a similar path to total EU GDP between early 2008 and mid-2012, but has since shown much stronger growth as the UK decoupled from the eurozone.”