China digs in on currency as it assures on climate change action
CHINA yesterday pushed back against calls to let its currency rise, with Premier Wen Jiabao warning that lifting the yuan could hobble growth, while assuring Europe that his nation is serious about global warming.
Speaking after summit talks with the European Union, Wen said the demands being made of Beijing to push up the yuan’s exchange rate were not fair. He reaffirmed China’s determination to take its own, gradual steps on the currency front but said that for now the yuan, also known as the renminbi, was being kept broadly steady.
Wen said: “In this international financial crisis of a kind rarely seen in history, maintaining the basic stability of the renminbi exchange rate has benefited China’s economic development and benefited world economic recovery.”