Britain will scrape by without a full-blown recession over the next two years as a weaker pound cushions the Brexit shock and panic subsides, Standard & Poor’s has predicted.

“We’re not in the Armageddon camp,” said Jean-Michel Six, the rating agency’s chief economist for Europe.

“Devaluation acts a shock absorber. It stimulates exports and makes the London Stock Exchange more attractive to foreign investors,” he said.

The UK economy should muddle through with growth of 1.5pc this year, 0.9pc in 2017, and 1pc in 2018, shielded from the storm by fiscal largesse and monetary stimulus a l’outrance.