The UK economy continued to gather pace in April, according to the CBI, and even stronger growth is just around the corner.

The CBI’s measure of UK economic output increased from an eight-month low recorded in March and is well above average across all industry sectors, including manufacturing and retail.

Meanwhile, the outlook for the next three months is exceptionally robust and broad-based, with expectations the strongest since the organisation started collecting data in 2003.

Katja Hall, CBI chief policy director, said: “These latest growth figures, and the strong expectations for the next quarter, provide further encouraging signs of increasing vigour and confidence across the UK economy.

“While consumer spending accounted for the lion’s share of GDP growth last year, there are firm indications of growth becoming more broad-based. It’s good to see that business investment has consistently contributed to quarterly growth since 2013.”