Blank (i): prescience
- Context: The economist is "trumpeting" (boasting about) his _______ after accurately predicting a major downturn. The blank must describe the quality of being able to predict the future.
- Fit: Prescience means the fact of knowing something before it takes place; foresight. This perfectly describes the act of accurately predicting a major downturn.
- Affluence means wealth (irrelevant).
- Veracity means truthfulness (irrelevant to the prediction itself).

Blank (ii): uncanny
- Context: The semicolon (;) and the word "for years" signal a Contrast or Correction of the preceding clause. The prediction was not as _______ as he claimed because he had been "prophesying fiscal doom" for years.
- Fit: If he predicts doom every year, one correct prediction is not special or surprising. The blank must mean surprising, extraordinary, or supernatural, which is what he claimed the prediction was. Uncanny means strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way; beyond normal expectation. Since he predicts doom constantly, the one correct prediction isn't truly uncanny or special, even though he claimed it was.
- Unambiguous means clear or not open to more than one interpretation (irrelevant to the surprise factor).
- Provident means making timely preparation for the future (describes the economist's actions, but doesn't capture the sense of surprise/extraordinariness that is being contradicted).

The completed sentence reads:
However much the economist trumpeted his prescience, his accurate prediction of a major downturn was not as uncanny as he leaded the public to believe; for years he had been prophesying fiscal doom.