BEIJING (MNI) – The Chinese government continued to criticize
Washington’s economic policies Monday, accusing the Federal Reserve of
endangering global economic stability.
But Ministry of Finance Vice-Minister Zhu Guangyao played down
tensions in the bilateral relationship at a briefing for reporter here,
insisting that the two sides will solve their differences through
cooperation.
Zhu was briefing ahead of this week’s meetings of the leaders of
the Group of 20 in South Korea, a summit at which the U.S. is expected
to come under fire for the Federal Reserve’s decision to implement a
fresh quantitative easing program to support growth.
“China believes that the U.S.’s second round of quantitative easing
will have an impact on the stablity of world financial markets,
including emerging markets,” Zhu said.
He said that China hopes that Fed policy will boost U.S. and world
economic growth and, as the world’s major reserve currency issuing
country, he said that the U.S. should be responsible in its monetary
policy-making.
“The U.S. is not fulfilling its obligation to stabilize world
markets with its new quantitative easing measures,” Zhu said.
But Zhu also played down tensions between China and U.S., arguing
that “cooperation is the key tone of the Sino-US relationship.”
Further comments suggested that China is opposed to a proposal from
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner which would bind current account
surplus countries to keep their surpluses at a ratio of 4% or under to
GDP.
He said that a one-size-fits-all approach would be difficult to
implement and that economic structural adjustments take time.
Zhu also played down talk of differing opinions within the Chinese
government on the issue of Fed policy following conciliatory comments on
the easing decision by People’s Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan
last week.
“The Chinese government stance is unified,” Zhu said.
beijing@marketnews.com
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