Mainland China will emerge largely unscathed from the round of credit tightening in the US that is threatening to dampen world economic growth over the coming year, according to Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China. Speaking at a meeting of finance chiefs from the Group of 20 economic powers in South Africa, Zhou noted that a decline in exports to the US could actually help reduce China's massive trade surplus, the South China Morning Post reported. However, Wang Xinpei, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said exports were unlikely to be significantly affected. He downplayed a recent survey by the ministry's policy research department that concluded that subprime could herald an economic slowdown. China's banks have reported limited exposure to subprime loans that went bad. None of the country's foreign exchange reserves was invested in these kinds of products.
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