In These New Times

Oct 15 2010

People’s Daily

To judge the yuan exchange rate only by the existence of China’s trade surplus is not justified and lacks support of economic theory, Ministry of Commerce spokesman Yao Jian said on Oct. 15.

Yao also pointed out that on the issue of yuan exchange rate, China will guide its policy in line with its own economic conditions.

Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis, China has adopted a series of policies that effectively stimulate economic growth in China and the world.

“Preliminary statistics showed that China has contributed 50 percent of world growth in 2009,” Yao said.

In 2009, China had very good cooperation with the United States, and the Chinese side hopes to further strengthen cooperation, he said. “The United States cannot use China as a scapegoat when addressing domestic unemployment.”

“China has never deliberately pursued a trade surplus. In recent months, China’s imports continued to expand and trade balance continued to improve,” Yao said.

E Yongjian from the Center for Financial Research under the Bank of Communications said this is repeating China’s position, which has been announced before, that China will achieve the steady appreciation of the yuan on its own terms.

On Oct. 15, the central parity of yuan stood at 6.6497 per U.S. dollar and set a new high. Since China started the reform of the yuan exchange rate formation mechanism in 2005, yuan has gained 24.46 percent against the dollar.

By People’s Daily Online