The coronavirus crisis caused a much larger rise in public and private debt than the global financial crisis, the IMF said on Wednesday, as it highlighted a “great finance divide” between countries with access to finance and those without.

The debt was generally put to good use during the pandemic, according to Vitor Gaspar, head of fiscal policy at the IMF, cushioning households and companies from Covid-19, speeding the recovery and brightening economic prospects.

Almost 90 per cent of the active fiscal support deployed during the Covid crisis was taken by advanced economies and China. Although these countries also had better access to vaccines, the IMF said this demonstrated the value of being able to support economies with government spending during a crisis.