Hu’s on first. First Avenue in New York, that is, at the United Nations.
He says that keeping a stable CNY helps maintain healthy international trade.
Healthy international trade for China, perhaps, but not for the rest of the world.
Apparently with a straight face, he calls for refraining from protectionism in the next breath. Maintaining an artificially weak currency is a huge subsidy for Chinese exporters, but that seems lost on Chinese officials.
The comments give us little hope of any significant changes in global imbalances despite lots of flowery rhetoric to come at the G20.
