Saudi Arabia at the weekend resisted international pressure to copy Japan’s example and give the International Monetary Fund additional funds to bail out ailing economies. It has opted instead to focus on domestic expenditures amid complaints from Saudi commentators that the west was attempting to “steal” the oil exporter’s wealth.

A Japanese spokesman said Tokyo was not disappointed by the failure so far of countries such as China and Saudi Arabia to replicate last week’s Japanese offer of $100bn (€79bn, £68bn) in emergency funds for the IMF. “We will keep suggesting this but we did not expect something this time,” he said.