The catch-up boom in China, India, Brazil is largely over and will be followed by a drastic slowdown during the next decade, according to a grim report by America’s top forecasting body.

Europe’s prognosis is even worse, with France trapped in depression with near- zero growth as far as 2025 and Britain struggling to raise its speed limit to 1 per cent over the next three parliaments.

The US Conference Board’s global outlook calls into question the BRICs miracle (Brazil, Russia, India, China), arguing that the low-hanging fruit from cheap labour and imported know-how has already been picked.

China’s double-digit expansion rates will soon be a romantic memory. Growth will fall to 6.9 per cent next year, then to 5.5 per cent from 2014 to 2018, and 3.7 per cent from 2019-25 as the aging crisis hits and investment returns go into ‘‘rapid decline’’.

Growth in India - where the reform agenda has been ‘‘largely derailed’’ - will fall to 4.7 per cent to 2018, and then to 3.9 per cent. Brazil will slip to 3 per cent and then 2.7 per cent. Such growth rates will leave these countries stuck in the ‘‘middle-income trap’’, dashing hopes for a quick jump into the affluent league.