The US toughened its warning on China on Thursday for “lack of flexibility” of its yuan currency and for rapidly building up its foreign reserves, but stopped short of branding Beijing a currency manipulator.
“Both the rigidity of the renminbi and the reacceleration of reserve accumulation are serious concerns which should be corrected to help ensure a stronger, more balanced global economy,” the US Treasury said.
The Treasury’s statement came in its semi-annual report to Congress under a law requiring it to determine whether any foreign economy manipulates its currency against the US dollar.
The yuan, which has depreciated 6.9 percent against the US dollar since February last year, remains “undervalued,” the Treasury report said.
China’s foreign exchange reserves, already the world’s largest, jumped nearly 20 percent from a year ago to a record US$2.27 trillion at the end of last month, the Chinese central bank said on Wednesday.
Thursday’s Treasury report said “no major trading partner of the United States met the standards” for branding them a currency manipulator for gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade.
While 14 of 17 currencies studied appreciated against the dollar in the second quarter of this year, only the yuan remained unchanged against the dollar, the report found.
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