By Wiktor Szary and Nicholas Winning 

LONDON--Strong growth in household spending helped boost the British economy in the run up to the U.K.'s referendum on continued European Union membership, while business investment fell slightly year-over-year.

During the second quarter, the U.K.'s gross domestic product grew 2.2% from the year-earlier period, the Office for National Statistics said Friday, confirming an earlier preliminary estimate. On an annualized basis, the U.K. economy grew 2.4%, the ONS said. It said the growth's momentum came mostly from record-strong household spending, which increased at the fastest rate in eight years.

Friday's figures also provided insight into business investment, which decreased by 0.8% in the April-June period compared with the same period a year earlier, though it rose 0.5% from the first quarter.

While the ONS said that there was currently "very little" anecdotal evidence that the June 23 referendum had any impact on the pace of economic growth in the second quarter of this year, the data highlighted the resilience of consumers, and the somewhat more cautious approach taken by businesses in the immediate run-up to the vote.

This appears to be in line with other early signs. While July's GfK survey showed that consumer confidence took a dive in the immediate aftermath of the U.K.'s decision to quit the EU, suffering the steepest fall in more than two decades, official retail sales data for the month showed a strong increase, boosted by warm weather and the weakened pound.

However, the picture of the business climate emerging from the first pieces of post-referendum data appears gloomier.

The closely watched survey of purchasing managers at manufacturers and service providers fell sharply in July, reaching its lowest level since early 2009, when the global economy was in the throes of a steep downturn following the onset of the financial crisis. And, the Bank of England's network of regional agents reported that while firms weren't planning any big changes to their hiring and investment plans for the moment, there was a marked increase in perceptions of uncertainty among businesses.

The ONS is scheduled to release its preliminary estimate of U.K. economic growth for the third quarter in late October.

Write to Nicholas Winning at nick.winning@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 26, 2016 09:07 ET (13:07 GMT)