Major economic blocs, such as the US, European Union, China and Japan, have engaged in ‘currency wars’ for a number of years, which now risk spiralling into ever more disruptive “beggar-thy-neighbour” policies, according to Jacques de Larosière, a former managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

De Larosière, who previously was also a former governor of Banque de France, said the international monetary “anti-system” needed to be fixed, ideally by creating a new commodity-linked