But the next government will need to tackle the key issues of a rising deficit, weak investment, stagnant productivity and high national debt.

There was a glimmer of hope in 2015 that we were finally emerging from the tunnel of stagnant productivity.

All these things - falling business investment, stagnant productivity and weak growth in wages - are, of course, intimately linked.

Countless reports have identified it as a key cause of the ills afflicting developed economies, from sluggish growth to stagnant productivity.

Real wages are stalling because stagnant productivity has meant that pay and prices are rising roughly in tandem.

In the latter, tough lending conditions and stagnant wages could be playing a role.

Divorce, soaring house prices and stagnant wages are forcing middleaged fortysomethings to return to flat-sharing with strangers who are often half their age.

As the governor himself fears, the combination of rising interest rates with continued stagnant wages could make millions of households susceptible to financial collapse.

Rising costs and stagnant wages mean 44 per cent have ditched the dos.

Rising living costs, stagnant wages and spiraling childcare have combined to create the 'perfect personal finance storm'.

Natural springs defeated the plan, until, years later, the stagnant water was converted to the world's biggest swimming pool.

Stagnant water and a lack of good sanitation could create breeding grounds for cholera and malaria.

Floods and mild temperatures have left many areas covered with stagnant water — the perfect breeding ground for the pests.

And precautions should always be taken for stagnant water.

They transform swaths of rainforest into giant craters filled with stagnant water, where mosquitoes breed and spread malaria.