The US on Tuesday defended the use of the greenback as a key global currency, shrugging off China's calls to ditch it as the international reserve currency.
US President Barack Obama told a White House press conference that “the dollar is extraordinarily strong right now,” and although the US was “going through a rough patch” at present, it enjoyed a “great deal of confidence” from investors.
“I don't believe there is a need for a global currency,” Obama said.
But People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan's (周小川) call to replace the dollar, installed as the reserve currency after World War II, with a different standard run by the IMF was a “serious” proposal, a senior IMF official said.
US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at a congressional hearing that they would not allow the dollar to be stripped of the premier reserve status as suggested by Beijing.
At the hearing, a lawmaker asked the two financial chiefs: “Would you categorically renounce the United States moving away from the dollar and going to a global currency as suggested by China?”
Geithner immediately responded: “I would.”
“And the chair?” the lawmaker asked, turning to Bernanke.
“I would also,” Bernanke said.
China is the largest creditor to the US, being the top holder of US$739.6 billion in US Treasury bonds as of January, US figures show. It is also the world's largest holder of US dollars as a reserve currency, at more than US$1 trillion.
In such a dominant position, “China appears to be growing more and more assertive over its rights,” currency analyst Andrew Busch of BMO Capital Markets said.
Meanwhile, a top economic official from the EU, whose single currency is gaining an increasing share among central banks as a reserve currency, said the dollar remained unchallenged as the dominant reserve unit.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said the dollar would remain unchallenged as the top reserve currency even as emerging economies such as China play a more critical role in the global economy.
“The relative economic powers are changing,” he told a news conference at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “But I don't expect major structural changes in the role that the dollar plays today as a reserve currency.”
The debate over the dollar's role comes ahead of the G20 summit next Thursday in London, where world leaders and organizations are to discuss reforming the financial system.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS