UK GDP grew by 0.4pc during the first three months of 2016, we learnt last week, down from 0.6pc the quarter before. “The threat of leaving the European Union is now weighing on our economy,” claimed Chancellor George Osborne.

The Bank of England is worried about “a fall in sterling due to fears of Brexit”, we’re repeatedly told, the latest Threadneedle Street intervention also warning of “a lower path for growth” if British voters have the audacity to leave the EU.

And if only “uncertainty” hadn’t been “heightened by the UK’s referendum on EU membership”, Janet Yellen opined last Wednesday, the mighty Federal Reserve might now be able to raise interest rates, helping the US central bank steer global markets away from dependence on emergency measures and back towards normality.

With Britain’s EU decision-day less than two months away, every official economic body now seems to be telling us Brexit would send the British economy to hell in a hand-basket – and even threat of Brexit is already doing untold damage.

So what if the UK referendum date wasn’t set until the end of February, most of the way through the first quarter, or growth also slowed across Asia and the US?