Last July, reporting LVMH’s first-half results, Jean-Jacques Guiony, chief financial officer of LVMH, made a pointed observation: group operating profit increased by only 7 per cent, due to the impact of the biggest currency fluctuations the group had ever seen. At constant exchange rates operating profit would actually have risen 19 per cent.

When asked for his thoughts in January on the outlook for 2009, he remained cautious: “It’s difficult to say how things will pan out in 2009 until we know better how things unfold from a currency perspective,” he said. “Volatility is at an unprecedented level and making any predictions is highly risky.”