Is the UK really the world's fastest growing 'major' economy?

George Osborne can correctly say that the economy grew faster than any other advanced economy - but that comes with a few caveats

The Telegraph has published a letter from 100 business leaders saying a Labour government would be a risk to the economy. An excerpt from it reads:

Britain grew faster than any other major economy last year and businesses like ours have created over 1.85m new jobs.

Up until the global economic crisis, the efficiency of UK workers tended to increase by around 2-2.5% a year. Had that trend continued, productivity would have been 15% higher than it was before the recession.