If the doomsayers are to be believed, virtually all the world’s production is shifting to low-cost nations such as China, in a process that will make factories in rich countries about as rare as frock-coats and gramophones.

But the reality is different. Certainly, companies have in the past decade relocated a lot of production to countries outside the main developed nations – but western Europe, North America and Japan will this year still account for about three-quarters of world manufacturing output. China’s share is about 9 per cent, albeit substantially higher than the 4 per cent it accounted for a decade ago.