The International Monetary Fund hailed China’s progress on currency liberalization, but said some member countries still view the renminbi as "substantially undervalued".The IMF executive board also praised Beijing’s massive efforts to bolster the economy amid the current global contraction.
The board of the the multilateral institution said it "welcomed the important progress made in the past few years in increasing the market’s role in determining the exchange rate, as well as the consequent substantial real appreciation that has been achieved since the exchange rate reform in 2005".
There is a polite air of condescension in this statement which does not hang well with the facts. Note that the person in the illustration is not an avid supporter.
Yes, there is an improvement in strained relations between the Washington-based IMF and China which wants more say in the institution to reflect its rising economic might. But, one might ask, why is the IMF in Washington which is the capital of a country which has shown a signal inability to deal with its own finances let alone those of the world?
The 24-member executive board, chaired by IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, includes directors representing the US, China, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The remaining 16 directors represent groups of countries in the 186-member IMF. China’s size and financial strength is not reflected here.
AFP reported that the IMF directors praised Beijing’s "rapid and vigorous policy response in both the fiscal and monetary policy areas" in the face of the global crisis, and called for more reforms to rebalance the country’s economic growth.
Perhaps if the countries concerned removed the beam from their own eyes they might then legitimately worry about the mote in the eyes of China.
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