Britain’s finance sector is to blame for a large part of the productivity crisis, but should soon start growing again – potentially putting an end to the severe slowdown in growth and living standards.

Higher productivity would also let the Bank of England raise interest rates more slowly, said Silvana Tenreyro, who joined the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee last year.

“The [financial services] sector’s post-crisis performance has been as poor as its pre-crisis performance was strong. Credit and deposit growth have been weak as banks and households have sought to deleverage,” she said in a speech at Queen Mary University, London.

“But those processes have largely run their course.”

In future the finance industry could “move in lockstep with aggregate GDP and productivity in the rest of the economy".

"Relative to the past few years, that would amount to a helpful boost to productivity growth,” she said.