The British government this morning announced the biggest upgrade to official growth projections in more than a decade following the economy's surprisingly strong turnaround.

In a budget update, Chancellor George Osborne said the economy was on track to grow by 1.4 percent this year - more than double the 0.6 percent pencilled in at the time of the March budget.

Growth in 2014, he said, was expected to be 2.4 percent, up from the previous estimate of 1.8 percent.

Having been a laggard for several years, Britain has overtaken its euro zone peers to become one of the fastest-growing advanced economies in the world.

However, the economy remains smaller than it was before the financial crisis, which is not the case for most of Britain's trading partners.