‘China’s yuan now less undervalued’

DHAKA: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) shifted its view on China’s currency, saying progress toward a more consumer-driven economy had made the yuan now only ‘moderately undervalued’.

Previously the IMF said the yuan was ‘significantly undervalued’, joining the United States, Europe and others in protest over the government’s policy keeping the yuan undervalued to make exports cheaper, gaining a trade advantage.

In a news conference in Beijing, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, David Lipton, said that over the past several years China had made ‘significant progress’ in reducing external imbalances with other parts of the world.

Lipton cited improvement in China’s current account surplus, a broad measure of trade, which shrank to less than 3 percent of gross domestic product, or economic output, last year from 10 per cent of GDP in 2007.

BDST: 1953 HRS, JUN 9, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor