‘The sick man of Europe’ is an unhappy title worn by each of the continent’s major powers at one point or another over the past century or so.

The crumbling Ottoman Empire held the position in its dying decades.

A much-diminished Weimar Germany took over in the miserable inter-war years.

Britain sank to the depths of economic gloom in the dysfunctional Sixties and Seventies before the Thatcher revolution.

Germany again struggled in the late Nineties before labour market reforms revived its fortunes.

As its neighbour’s star rose, France looked sickly – abortive attempts to follow a similar course of reforms highlighted its own economic failings, leading to President Macron’s vigorous efforts this year.

And Italy has been the eurozone’s perennial underperformer this century, with sketchy signs of recovery repeatedly failing to turn into a full return to strength.

But after decades of strong relative performance which led to growing confidence that the UK is fundamentally more successful than the sclerotic eurozone, Britain’s economic health is at risk.

The OECD’s GDP growth forecasts put the UK’s growth in 2018 at just 1.2pc, trailing Italy’s projected 1.5pc expansion. It puts Britain in joint last place in the developed world alongside Japan which has long been stuck in an economic twilight.

The contrast is even greater as the eurozone is simultaneously experiencing a long-overdue economic recovery, coming back to life after the bruising combination of the credit crunch, banking difficulties and the sovereign debt crisis.

Is Britain at risk of becoming the sick man of Europe once more?