Fund managers have predicted that the recovery from the financial crisis will be the fastest in recent history, according to a survey by investment consultant Watson Wyatt, arguing that it will take three years for equity markets to climb back to historical return levels.

The prediction is a rare moment of optimism in the current financial turmoil. Following previous crises, markets have taken a good deal longer than three years to revert to their position before the crash. It took 24 years to recover from the Great Depression, five years from the 1970s bull market and four years after the technology bubble burst in 2000.