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, the country’s central bank governor said yesterday.

The two parties discussed how to respect the autonomy of each other’s monetary authorities in determining the monetary policy, Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual legislative session.

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 also discussed the issue that both sides should commit to disclose data in accordance with the statistics transparency standard of the International Monetary Fund, according to Yi.

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

With the continuous improvement of the Chinese socialist market economy, the market is making up a increasingly greater proportion in the exchange rate formation mechanism. China’s exchange rates are becoming increasingly market-oriented, Yi said.

Meanwhile, China will continue to adopt a prudent monetary policy that will be eased or tightened to the right degree, he said.

The policy will stress counter-cyclical adjustment and mean that the increases in M2 money supply and aggregate financing should be in keeping with nominal GDP growth.

It will also entail greater support to small and micro-sized enterprises and private businesses, he added.

China’s monetary policy, mainly devised to fit the domestic economic situation, will also take into account global factors and China’s position in the global economic system as well as the export-oriented sectors, Yi said.

There is still some room for lowering the country’s required reserve ratio, he said.

China’s overall reserve ratio, or required reserve ratio plus excess reserve ratio, now stands at roughly 12 percent, a similar level as some developed countries, Yi said.

In the United States and Europe, the overall level is also around 12 percent, while that in Japan is more than 20 percent, Yi said. Since the beginning of 2018, China has lowered the reserve requirement ratio by 3.5 percentage points in five cuts.

“After our cuts, there is still some room for China to lower the ratio, but such room is much smaller than a few years ago.”

Also at the press conference, Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the central bank, said China will roll out a fintech development plan and apply the technology more widely to better serve real economy.

(Xinhua)

(More “Two Sessions” stories on P3, 4)

ececonomy.(Xinhua)