The British economy has experienced 59 successive quarters of GDP growth due to the performance of the service industry, according to a new report.

Ernst & Young’s economic forecasting group, the ITEM Club, revealed in its spring forecast that due to the strong business and financial services sector, the economy will continue to expand by 4% or more each year for the next decade.

The report forecasts that the UK’s 3% growth this year will be faster than any of the other major global economies, with average living standards rising even further ahead of Germany and France.

The services sector, which includes accountants, lawyers, advertising agencies, architects, estate agents, call centres and job agencies, employs more people than manufacturing in every region of the UK except the East Midlands and Wales.

The ITEM Club’s chief economic adviser, Professor Peter Spencer, said: “Over half of the new jobs in the last decade have been in financial and business services and the sector now employs nearly 30% of the workforce compared to 14% in 1980. That will only increase in the coming decades.”

But the report warns that the government should not take this continued growth for granted with the rapid development of India and China.

“No one should be in any doubt that as the service sector in India becomes more sophisticated, their companies will take on the UK service sector both in India and here,” said Mark Otty, chairman of E&Y. “We will have to face up to an increasingly connected and globalised world.”