Coming out of one of the darkest recessions, have we learned the lesson at all? Or are we going to repeat the mistakes of the past again?

Khuram Maqsood, managing director of boutique corporate financing advisory firm Emirates Capital, thinks we may well repeat them.

He says a second wave in the downturn – if it comes at all – is unlikely to come from a new, unseen fault in world markets.

“The second wave’s going to come from exactly the same place the first wave came from –which is short attention spans, short memories,” he tells Reuters Investment summit in Dubai.

“Even in 2009 you’re beginning to see some of the issues that brought the global economy to its knees creeping up again, like executive pay for example.

“Again we’re beginning to see too much leverage seeping into different parts of the global economy, so it seems there are similar things which encroach back into the playing field and I think that’s the risk.”