Brazil may be at odds with Washington when it comes to sanctions against Iran, but Brazil and the U.S. are in agreement when it comes to China’s currency.
Henrique Meirelles, head of the Brazilian central bank, said this week that a stronger Chinese yuan was “absolutely critical for the equilibrium of the world economy” while addressing the Brazilian Senate’s economic affairs committee. His remarks came ahead of his trip to Washington DC for today’s G-20 finance meeting.
His comments coincide with statements from India’s central bank condemning the undervaluation of China’s currency. “If some countries manage their exchange rate and keep them artificially low, the burden of adjustment falls on some countries that do not manage their exchange rate so actively,” said governor of the Reserve Bank of India Duvvuri Subbarao.
The United States had put strong diplomatic pressure on China to strengthen its currency in the run-up to the release of the U.S. Treasury Department’s now-delayed April 15 report on international exchange rate policies.
