“Mr Imbert is expressing fake concern for a crisis he caused by failing to create an enabling environment for foreign and domestic investment, economic diversification and to boost non-energy production and exports in particular,” the Finance Minister said.

“As a country, we are using more foreign exchange than we are generating, and have been doing so for years. Obviously as a country, we need to generate more foreign exchange, manage existing foreign currency holdings and engage in import substitution. These are not mutually exclusive.”