China
Written on March 19, 2008
China is deeply concerned about the potential global economic fallout from the U.S. subprime crisis, which could make its job of balancing growth and fighting inflation more challenging, Premier Wen Jiabao said on Tuesday.
Although Wen told a news conference it would be difficult to keep inflation this year to within Beijing’s 4.8 percent target, he said he was confident the government would succeed at its main task for this year: checking price rises while engineering stable growth.
But he highlighted the increasing uncertainties brought about by the U.S. subprime crisis, which has spawned a fall in the dollar, slammed stock markets worldwide and fed into a surge in oil prices.
“I am closely watching and feel deeply worried about the global economic situation, especially the U.S. economy,” Wen told reporters after the closing session of the National People’s Congress, or parliament.
“What concerns me now is the continuous depreciation of the U.S credit reports free credit report online. dollar and when the dollar will hit bottom.”
The dollar is trading near 13-year lows against the yen and record lows against the euro, after the U.S. Federal Reserve has repeatedly cut interest rates and after it took the rare step of cutting its discount rate on Sunday.
Wen said that Beijing would have to take the changing economic landscape into account when deciding on further policy steps, despite its having switched to a “tight” monetary policy at the end of last year to curb excessive growth in investment and credit.
While many other countries are facing a credit crunch in the wake of the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, China is struggling to contain a surge in liquidity stemming from its massive trade surplus.
Filed in: term.