For an ephemeral feeling, confidence is awfully powerful. Worried households don’t spend and pessimistic companies don’t invest. If everyone is sitting on their hands, growth vanishes. As such, confidence has a very real impact on economic performance.

Brexit has come as a shock but there are fears that the UK could talk itself into deeper trouble. Yesterday’s second-quarter growth was a forecast-busting 0.6 per cent, but did not lift the leaden mood. For Martin Beck, senior economic adviser to the EY Item Club, it was “one last hurrah for the economy”.

Few dispute that the economy will be hit as a result of the vote. The issue is the scale of the damage and how quickly growth will bounce back. “If people stop spending and