Britain's economy is growing at the second-fastest pace of all the largest developed countries, figures are expected to show this week.

Growth looks set to have hit 0.5 per cent for the first three months of 2019, defying experts who feared Brexit uncertainty would hurt the economy.

The figures place the UK second in the G7 list that also features France, Germany, the US, Italy, Japan and Canada.

Britain's economy is growing at the second-fastest pace of all the largest developed countries, figures are expected to show this week

Of the seven, only the US is growing faster, recording a 0.8 per cent quarterly rise.

Italy, France and the Eurozone have posted growth of 0.2 per cent, 0.3 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively for the first three months of this year.

The UK has leapt ahead of its European neighbours due to record-high employment, strong consumer spending and a stockpiling frenzy ahead of Brexit.

The figures will be seen as yet another sign that experts were too gloomy about the prospects for the economy if Britain voted to leave the EU.

Last week, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney conceded the economy was doing better than officials had predicted three months ago

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: 'Brexit uncertainty doesn't seem to have held the economy back much at all.'

Last week, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney conceded the economy was doing better than officials had predicted three months ago.

However, he warned that the Bank may have to respond to faster growth with a series of interest rate rises to quell inflation.