"We're taking steps to reduce surplus"
(Bloomberg/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-04-23 10:01 China will push ahead with yuan convertibility ``step by step,'' Sun Lujun,
deputy director of the Capital Account Management Department of the State
Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a financial conference in Beijing
today.
Voting Rights
``Yuan convertibility is a systematic project and has to accommodate the
nation's macroeconomic development and financial reform,'' Sun said.
New rules announced April 13 allow domestic banks to convert their clients'
local currency to buy U.S. Treasuries and other overseas fixed-income
securities, a step toward a freely traded currency.
Zhou today also called on the International Monetary Fund to enlarge the
voting rights of Asian and other emerging economies to reflect their growing
share of the global economy.
``The fund's quota structure should reflect the changed world economic
structure,'' he said.
The U.S. has the biggest stake in the 184-member IMF, with 17 percent. The
fund, founded in 1945, makes loans to countries as part of a program in which
the borrower agrees to change policies, such as adjusting its balance of
payments or reducing inflation.
Asian members of the fund have a combined 13 percent voting stake, yet
accounted for 19 percent of the world economy in 2004.
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