China Not Interested In Yuan Competitive Devaluation - Foreign Ministry

Fakhir Rizvi Published October 18, 2018 | 05:55 PM

China is not interested in competitive devaluation of its national currency, and does not intend to use the yuan exchange rate as a means of settling trade differences, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said on Thursday.

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th October, 2018) China is not interested in competitive devaluation of its national currency, and does not intend to use the Yuan exchange rate as a means of settling trade differences, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lu Kang, said on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused China of competitive devaluation manipulating its national Currency in order to get trade preferences, namely, boost exports and cut imports. On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department released a report, not naming China as a currency manipulating nation, but still stipulating that the United States would closely monitor the Chinese financial policy and also investigate into the recent yuan exchange rate drop.

"We have paid attention to the related report. The conclusions, cited there, that China does not manipulate the currency rate are quite sensible, and they comply with the global community consensus.

As a responsible country, China has repeatedly said that we are not interested in the competitive devaluation of our national currency, and we will not use the yuan exchange rate as a weapon in trade differences settlement," Lu said at a press briefing.

He added that China intended to introduce a currency reform that would meet the market needs and maintain a stable and balanced yuan exchange rate.

"We hope that the United States will refrain from politicizing this issue," Lu said.

The yuan has dropped by nine percent against the US Dollar in the last six months.

This comes amid the ongoing US-China trade conflict that escalated in June when Trump announced that $50 billion worth of Chinese goods would be subject to 25 percent tariffs. Since then, the two countries have exchanged several rounds of trade duties against each other.