The world’s financial policymakers must draw some hard lessons from the latest market turmoil and upgrade and update their regulatory, monetary and fiscal policies to deal with future threats, according to Angel Gurría, the secretary general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

However, Mr Gurría vehemently denied that the short-term flexibility shown by the world’s main central banks in responding to the credit squeeze had weakened their inflation-fighting credentials in the longer term.