As part of the annual survey, the firm releases its figures for the current year ahead of a formal announcement, giving an idea of the market's direction.

For Deloitte to become a £2bn firm by 2008, it will have to maintain this unprecedented level of growth for another two years.

This target, announced by Deloitte senior partner John Connolly, will be increasingly difficult to achieve if, as experts predict, there is a slowdown in the rapid growth of the last year.

Connolly said that the firm's race to the £2bn mark had begun. ‘Our goal is to achieve revenues above £2bn in 2 years, that is the year ending 31 May 2008. This year the market has been buoyant and we have had reasonable growth in all of our businesses.’

In an effort to achieve the targets, Connolly has added seven people to the Deloitte executive, secured the services of departing CBI director general Sir Digby Jones, brought in new heads for tax client services, audit and industry and appointed 38 partners.