The crisis in the Emirates has reawakened the spectre of a ‘double dip’ – that the first shoots of recovery could be wiped out by a second wave of recession.

In London, the FTSE fell around 1.5 per cent after a 3 per cent fall yesterday wiped almost £44 billion from blue-chip stocks.

The index recovered its poise to stand 0.5 per cent lower after the first hour of trading. It was at 5188.73 at 12.45pm, down from 5194.13 at start of trading this morning.