China's currency moving toward equilibrium: IMF official

WASHINGTON - Chinese currency the renminbi (RMB) is moving towards equilibrium while China's external position is strengthening, an IMF official said on Friday.

The real effective renminbi exchange rate appreciated by more than 10 percent in the past six months and the currency is heading towards equilibrium, said Markus Rodlauer, deputy director of the Asia and Pacific Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF will carefully assess in its upcoming review of the valuation of the currency, Rodlauer said in answering questions of Xinhua at a press conference at the ongoing World Bank/IMF spring meetings.

On the same day, the US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said the renminbi exchange rate remains "significantly undervalued" and urged China to further strengthen the currency, while acknowledging the fact that China has reduced its exchange rate intervention.

Adam Posen, president of Peterson Institute for International Economics, recently said at a forum in Washington that the US accusation that Chinese currency remains "significantly undervalued" is not justified because China's current account surplus has declined sharply and the country has stopped intervening foreign exchange markets.

China's current account surplus has declined to about 2 percent of GDP in 2014 and its central bank basically doesn't intervene foreign exchange markets at all and the market force has played a bigger role in determining the renminbi exchange rate.