Leaders of the world’s largest economies have reached an agreement to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1 trillion. However the huge sums being devoted to helping troubled economies have already come under attack with several financial experts saying that there is actually no such number as a trillion.

Ian Maxwell-Fieding, chief economist at investment bankers Fletcher, Fletcher and Stack, says that although a million and a billion are genuine numbers, a trillion is just one that has been made up to pacify panicking treasuries. “There is no such thing as a trillion, there never has been,” said Mr Maxwell-Fielding. “They would have been as well saying they were implementing measures worth a zillion, or even a gazillion dollars.”

However both Gordon Brown and Barack Obama have defended the money being used to boost global trade and struggling economies. “We are very serious about this,” said Mr Obama. “A trillion dollars is a lot of money but we are confident this will work. If it doesn’t then we will not be afraid to commit even a bazillion dollars if that is what it takes.”

Mr Brown agreed.

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