China was never currency manipulator
Print Edition
CHINA has never been a currency manipulator, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said yesterday, adding the United States’ dropping its designation of China as a currency manipulator was in line with the facts and international consensus.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made the remarks at a press briefing when answering a question regarding the United States on Monday removing the currency manipulator label it imposed on China last summer.
Noting that the department assessed developments over the last several months with China and its currency practices, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement that “China has made enforceable commitments to refrain from competitive devaluation, while promoting transparency and accountability.”
“China has never been a currency manipulator. The latest US conclusion is in line with the facts and the consensus of the international community,” Geng said.
Geng added that the latest International Monetary Fund assessment concluded that the yuan’s exchange rate level is generally in line with the economy’s fundamentals, objectively denying the claim that China is a “currency manipulator.”
China is a responsible country, Geng said, adding that, “We have reiterated time and again that we will not engage in competitive currency devaluation and we have not and will never use the currency exchange rate as a tool to address trade conflict.”
China will unswervingly deepen the market-oriented reform of the yuan’s exchange rate mechanism, continue to improve the managed floating exchange rate system based on market supply and demand and reference to a basket of currencies, and keep the yuan’s exchange rate basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level, Geng added.
Mark Sobel, US chairman of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, an independent think tank, said on Twitter that this is “good news,” calling the designation “blatant” and “errant” political act.
“China shouldn’t have been designated to start with,” said Sobel, who was the US representative at the IMF, and served as deputy assistant secretary at the US Treasury Department. He noted China’s current account surplus is small as a share of GDP, and there is “scant intervention.”
Amid heightened trade tensions, the US Treasury Department decided to label China a currency manipulator in August.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
