US Treasury Secretary quoted as saying his department was monitoring currency issues “very carefully”, noting the renminbi had fallen “significantly” this year
China’s central bank governor Yi Gang has met with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on the sidelines of the World Bank annual conference in Bali, Indonesia and exchanged views over “relevant economic and financial issues,” the People’s Bank of China said in a brief statement on its website on Thursday.
The meeting took place at a time when Washington is raising voices over yuan exchange rates.
Mnuchin was quoted by the Financial Times on Wednesday as saying the Treasury monitored currency issues “very carefully” and noted that the Chinese renminbi had fallen “significantly” during the year, adding he wanted to discuss the currency with Beijing as part of trade talks.
The meeting also happened against the backdrop of a big worldwide market slump. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 800 points on Wednesday, marking the worst day drop in eight months, while China’s benchmark Shanghai composite stock index has lost 4.4 per cent in the morning session to the lowest level since January 2016.
A senior US Treasury official told the Post earlier that Washington is concerned about the depreciation of the yuan, officially calling the renminbi, as well as recent moves by Beijing to strengthen government control over the exchange rate.
The official said questions about the yuan would be addressed in the Treasury’s next Foreign Exchange Report, which would likely be released during the week of October 15.
