Regardless of the 'Flat Earth Society' members on here the UK economy continues to go from strength to strength.
It really is very good news.
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'Britain is on course to overtake France and become the fifth biggest economy in the world, according to a former Bank of England official.
Andrew Sentance, who is now senior economic adviser at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the UK could leapfrog France by the end of the year as the recovery picks up pace.
The prediction came as a report by rival accountancy firm Grant Thornton showed business confidence is at its highest level for more than 20 years.
The survey found 83 per cent of senior executives in the UK were optimistic about the future - up from 71 per cent at the end of last year, and the highest score since records began in 1992.
In a further boost to Chancellor George Osborne, who has staked his political reputation on the recovery, official figures are today (TUES) expected to show the economy grew strongly in the first three months of 2014.
The Bank of England believes gross domestic product (GDP) - the total size of the economy - grew by 1 per cent in the first quarter, and expects the second quarter 'to be only a little weaker'.
The last time the economy grew by around 1 per cent for two quarters in a row was in mid-2007 before the meltdown at Northern Rock.
Meanwhile, the pound surged to as much as $1.6856 yesterday - its strongest reading against the US dollar since 2009 - as the brightening outlook pushed the currency higher.
Harry Adams, managing director of currency trading firm Argentex, said: 'There is a simple explanation for the pound's appreciation and that is the UK economy is exceeding nearly every economist's expectation.'
Mr Sentance said that the UK economy is currently the sixth largest in the world but will overtake France 'in the next couple of years' based on forecasts by the International Monetary Fund.
But he added that it could happen even sooner given the pace of the recovery in the UK and the weakness of the French economy.
'The UK economy now appears set to regain the position it enjoyed in world economic rankings before the financial crisis - fifth place behind the US, China, Japan and Germany,' said Mr Sentence, who sat on the Bank's interest rates setting monetary policy committee from 2006 to 2011.
'All these economies have bigger populations than us - so fifth place in the world will be as good as it gets for Britain in the modern global economy.
'With the French economy struggling, and the pound appreciating against the euro, the UK should resume its fifth position soon, quite possibly by the end of this year. That should be a cause for national celebration.'
The growth spurt means that the economy is just weeks away from clawing back all the losses made during the what the IMF has called the Great Recession. GDP crashed 7.2 per cent in 2008 and 2009 and was still 1.4 per cent smaller than the pre-recession peak at the end of last year.
Simon Kirby, an economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said most of the remaining lost ground has now been made up.
'I think GDP will surpass its pre-recession peak at some point in the next few months,' he said.
Scott Barnes, chief executive of Grant Thornton, said business optimism 'has continued to bound ahead' in recent months in a sign 'the recovery is moving onto a more sustainable footing'.
He said: 'It's immensely encouraging that the data for the UK has broken its previous record high for business optimism and provides strong hope that the recovery is truly taking hold.
'Mirroring the uptick in optimism across other parts of the world - particularly the US, China, Japan and Germany - suggests the major global economies are back on track and headed in the right direction which bodes well for British exporters.'
The CBI last week reported that confidence among British manufacturers was at its highest level since 1973.
Katja Hall, chief policy director at the CBI, said: 'Confidence is rapidly rising among British manufacturers, with a real sense of business optimism. Our industrial base is seizing a bigger role in the UK's economic recovery, with output, orders and hiring all on the up.
'There are still bumps in the road ahead. However, expectations for growth in the coming three months are positive and manufacturers plan to significantly ramp up investment in the year ahead.'