“I’m absolutely determined to make the UK the best place in the world to start to grow and invest in businesses,” he said.

“But at the start of this year, I absolutely believe that the economy has turned the corner and we’re now pointing in the right direction.”

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The data follows new analysis from Goldman Sachs this week which found post-Brexit Britain had significantly underperformed other advanced economies since the 2016 EU referendum. The investment bank estimated the UK economy had grown 5 per cent less over the past eight years than other comparable countries.

Britain’s economic growth in 2024 is forecast to outpace that of Germany and France at 0.7 per cent, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. However, the annual 2023 growth figure was worse than the International Monetary Fund, the OECD and the Bank of England had predicted.

Grant Fitzner, the chief economist with the Office of National Statistics warned that economic inactivity was a major factor holding back growth. The UK remains the only G7 nation yet to return to pre-pandemic employment levels.

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“If more people were in work, consuming, producing, we would have higher GDP numbers,” Fitzner said.

“The fact that economic activity fell significantly post-pandemic and has only partly recovered is one of the factors underpinning weaker growth. Obviously, that would also underpin weaker consumer spending, given there are fewer people in employment and spending money.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Sunak had failed to turn the corner on 14 years of Tory economic decline.