The head of the IMF’s Africa department has called for a significant increase in international support to help countries overcome a funding squeeze that is jeopardising the continent’s economic development.Abebe Selassie told the Financial Times that reform of the current mechanisms for dealing with unsustainable debts of African countries was “desperately needed”.

“Do we have the authorising environment right now, a Gleneagles-like moment? We don’t, but it is that kind of moment that is needed,” he said, referring to the G8 summit in Scotland in 2005 that led to the cancellation of $130bn of debt for dozens of poor countries. Selassie did not call for an outright cancellation of current repayments.

“We need a much more efficient sovereign debt framework,” he said. “We need to be sure that resources are going to support countries rather than being used to service unsustainable debts.”