The Office for National Statistics has revealed that Britain is now no longer a global economic outlier after a significant upgrade to its post-pandemic economic performance.
By the end of 2021, GDP - the size of Britain's economy - had climbed back above pre-pandemic levels - much faster than previously thought.
The ONS originally said that the economy was still 1.2 percent smaller than its pre-lockdown size in the final three months of 2021, but it now says GDP was 0.6 percent higher than before the pandemic.
The change means that Britain is not the only G7 economy to have recovered from Covid.
Panmure Gordon's chief economist Simon French called the revision 'extraordinary' and said the entire UK economic narrative - post-pandemic - has just been revised away.
UK not back at pre-Covid-19 level' headline is now obsolete. It is no longer true, he added.
The review has highlighted a key attack line for Labour, which has highlighted the claim that Britain is the only G7 country still poorer than before the pandemic.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said 'those determined to talk down the British economy have been proven wrong'.
Britain's troubled manufacturing sector shrank at its fastest rate since the pandemic and the average UK house price fell in August at the sharpest annual rate seen in 14 years.
The changes, which added almost 2 per cent to the size of Britain's economy, mean that the UK has not had a worse growth record among G7 nations since 2019.
The data also show that Britain's economy is likely to outperform Germany, Europe's biggest economy.
The ONS blamed the changes on the economic contraction caused by Covid being less severe than previously thought. Companies have also continued to add to piles of unsold stock rather than selling them down as had been thought.
The ONS also found that wholesalers and the health sector had produced much more in 2021 than it had anticipated.
former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told The Independent: 'S chief economist said: 'It is not a surprise that a prime minister could be elected to the position of the chief executive in the future.