A former International Monetary Fund chief economist, he said China posed one of the biggest risks to the economy over the next five years.

The professor, who has long warned of a China slowdown, acknowledged that Beijing had taken “remarkable” steps to manage the slowdown from double-digit growth rates, but said rapid credit growth was unsustainable in the medium term.

No other large Asian country had successfully weaned itself off a reliance on exports and investment and towards consumer spending to drive growth, he claimed.

He said: “Credit has been growing faster than the economy every year, sometimes at double the rate of the economy, and that can’t go on forever. Even if they slow down to the point where credit growth rises at the same rate as the economy, Beijing will have a problem. When you have the train running at such a high speed, one bad patch of track can catch you out.”