China calls for closer G20 cooperation, stable currency rates
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Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren on Saturday called all major economies to continue to strengthen cooperation on international economic issues and maintain the stability of main reserve currencies.
At the Paris meeting gathering finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of 20 economies, Xie said that G20 members should enhance cooperation in making economic policies and cement the economic recovery against the downside risks.
Speaking at the meeting, Xie urged countries to reduce malicious capital flows that are aimed at arbitrage on international levels and have the potential of pushing up global inflation.
The Chinese minister also urged countries to continue fighting against all sorts of protectionism and to boost international trade and investment.
China will sustain an active fiscal policy and a prudent monetary policy through 2011, and continue to make economic structural reform in a bid to transform its model of economic growth, Xie said.
China will adapt to a better growth pattern that is driven by consumption, investment and export in a coordinated way, and will strive to increase citizens' income and improve its social security services, Xie added.
Also on Saturday, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the Chinese central bank, said the reform of the international monetary system (IMS) should take into account both long-term visions and short- term achievements as the reform addresses such a wide scope of contents.
Active discussions over the directions of the IMS reform were also in need, Zhou said. He called for bigger roles for the Special Drawing Rights, which can potentially function as the money of account and the asset of reserves.
Chinese delegations, headed by Xie and Zhou, attended the first finance meeting under French presidency of G20 in Paris from Friday to Saturday.
The meeting issued a statement confirming an agreement on a list of indicators to assess global economic imbalances after discussions and debates on global economy, reforms of the IMS, international financial regulations, the excessive volatility of main commodities.
The statement agreed on a bigger role for the International Monetary Fund in coordinating economic policies on international level.
What achieved so far was just the first step, said French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde in a press conference, noting further discussions on guidelines to assess the indicators, detail recommendations on IMS reforms and other important common concerns were expected by April, when the second finance meeting of 2011 will place in the United States.
