The reform programme Egypt proposed to the IMF targets a reduction of the deficit from 10.9 per cent of gross domestic product in the current June fiscal year, to 9.5 per cent in the next year.

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Between 2000 and 2010, its real gross domestic product grew 4.7% per year, and Africans now spend more on goods and services than a similarly sized population of Indians.

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But she said that, despite progress on fiscal policy, government debt would hit 108 per cent of gross domestic product this year.

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Mr Xiang said the central government had debts of between Rmb7tn and Rmb8tn and the overall government debt-to-gross domestic product ratio was about 40 per cent at the end of last year, roughly unchanged from a year earlier.

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