Sajid Javid, the business secretary, yesterday announced that President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Britain would be crowned by £25bn of Sino-British trade deals. Downing Street then increased the estimate to “up to £30bn”.
By the time he arrived at Mansion House on Wednesday night David Cameron was wielding an even more heady figure of £40bn — which found its way into countless news headlines.
As Mr Xi headed for Chequers for dinner with Mr Cameron and prepared to visit Manchester on the final day of his four-day state visit, Number 10 struggled to explain the curious bout of deal inflation.
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