Economics may be a dismal science but the predictions for the year ahead are not as bad as might have been expected. The 50 respondents to the fourth annual economics survey by The Times are confident that a hard Brexit on World Trade Organisation rules will be avoided, the squeeze on living standards will end and growth is more likely to overshoot official forecasts than fall short.

The only group for which there is strong agreement that 2018 will not be kind is London homeowners: economists expect house prices to drop by as much as 5 per cent in the capital next year while creeping up nationally.

That said, the panel of economists, which includes some prominent Leave supporters, accepts almost unanimously that 2018 will