The lobbying group expects this year’s GDP growth rate to be 1.7 per cent, marginally lower than the previous forecast of 1.8 per cent.

Stronger net exports are expected to make an important contribution to the economy both this year and next, with export growth of 8.6 per cent in 2011 and 7.6 per cent in 2012 expected to outpace the rise in imports over the period. This will result in a net positive impact on GDP.

However, the group warns that the growth will be ‘patchy and slow’. CBI chief economic adviser Ian McCafferty says, ‘The recovery continues to be choppy and lacking in vigour. Expansion in certain sectors is being offset by weaker performance in others.

‘What remains striking is how little we expect the pace of growth to accelerate in 2012, and that it will be far less robust than we’d normally expect in the second and third years of a recovery.’