China and US agree on key rate issues

Source: Xinhua | 2019-03-11

CHINA and the United States discussed exchange rates and reached consensus on many key, important issues in the latest round of economic and trade talks, Yi Gang said yesterday.

The two parties discussed on ways to respect the autonomy of each other’s monetary authorities in determining the monetary policy, said the governor of the People’s Bank of China.

The discussion also involved mutual adherence to the market-decided exchange rate mechanism, honoring the commitments made at previous G20 summits such as choosing not to adopt competitive depreciation, not to use exchange rates for competition purpose, and maintaining close communication on foreign exchange markets, Yi said.

They discussed the issue that both sides should commit to disclosing data in accordance with the statistics transparency standard of the International Monetary Fund, Yi said.

He stressed that China will never use exchange rates for competition purpose, nor apply them to boost exports or use them as tools of trade frictions.

With the continuous improvement of the Chinese socialist market economy, China’s exchange rates are becoming increasingly market-oriented, Yi added.