The International Monetary Fund, as predicted, is now forecasting that British gross domestic product will contract 2.8pc this year, worse than the U.S., the eurozone and Japan.

Last year we reported here on the first use of the “T” word (trillion) for losses across the banking sector. Now we’re into the “2T” word, a graphic indication of how much conditions are deteriorating around the globe.

The IMF expects the US economy to contract 1.6 percent; Japan to shrink 2.6 percent and the eurozone to decline 2 percent. Overall, the IMF expects the global economy to expand 0.5 percent, its weakest showing since the Second World War.

Economists at the IMF also estimated that bank losses may reach $2.2 trillion, almost twice the $1.4 trillion the organization predicted in October.

It warned that, “unless stronger financial strains and uncertainties are forcefully addressed, the pernicious feedback loop between real activity and financial markets will intensify, leading to even more toxic effects on global growth.”

In Britain, the bank bail-out is already projected to take national debt to 8 percent of GDP, and today the Institute Fiscal Studies warned that national debt levels are unlikely to return to the pre-crisis levels for more than 20 years.