According to preliminary Q2 GDP figures, published by the ONS this morning, the UK economy is now 0.2% larger than its previous peak in Q1 2008 following growth of 0.8% in the April-June quarter; from peak to trough in 2009 the economy shrank by 7.2%.
The UK economy has now grown 3.1% in the past 12 months, while the IMF has upgraded its growth forecast for the UK by 0.4% in 2014 to 3.2%, and 0.2% in 2015 to 2.7%. The upgrades were the largest for any major western economy for both years.
BPIF chief executive Kathy Woodward said that the print sector was certainly "more buoyant" but warned that the retail sector remained "quite challenging" and that margins were still tight.
She added: "Overall there is a degree of optimism that has not been seen since pre-recession days. We are seeing significant numbers of members looking to invest in systems and equipment to support their businesses in what they perceive as being a buoyant marketplace."
Peter Crowson, managing director of Leeds-based Team Impression, which recently completed a £1.1m investment in an HP Indigo 10000 seven-colour B2 digital press, agreed that business confidence had returned to pre-recession levels.
"Our business is absolutely booming at the moment," he said. "We definitely had a difficult time of it through the recession but the past nine months have been really good to us and June was the best month we've ever had.
"It definitely feels like we're back to 2007 from an economic and a confidence point of view. We've always been a printer that has looked to invest, but in the past three years there really wasn't the confidence to do so, whereas now we have the appetite and the confidence to invest sensibly."
Q2 growth was strongest in the service sector, which grew by 1%, followed by production, up 0.4%; construction and agriculture both contracted, shrinking 0.5% and 0.2% respectively.
Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said the UK was "in the fast lane of recovery", while the chancellor George Osborne tweeted: "Thanks to the hard work of the British people, today we reach a major milestone in our #LongTermEconomicPlan"
Economy bigger than previous peak in 2008 but long way to go-the Great Recession was one of deepest of any major economy & cost UK 6 years
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) July 25, 2014
Meanwhile, a CBI survey of 790 respondents across the manufacturing, retail and service sectors registered strong growth, with a balance of +29%, while a balance of +37% of respondents expected output to increase further in the coming quarter.
In the quarter to July, output volumes in the manufacturing sector grew at the strongest pace for five months.
Katja Hall, deputy director-general of the CBI, said: "The recovery shows little sign of slowing. There are signals that the recovery may now be on a more sustainable footing, with growth becoming more broad-based as business investment in particular grows strongly."
The global growth forecast for 2014 has been downgraded 0.3% to 3.4% due to weakness in the US, coupled with a less optimistic outlook for Brazil, while the Eurozone is expected to grow slowly at just 1.1% this year and 1.5% in 2015.
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