Chinese Central Banker Speaks His Mind On The Dollar

Posted By on December 17, 2009

Chinese Central Banker Zhu Says Dollar Set to Weaken 
By Bloomberg News

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — Chinese central banker Zhu Min said that the dollar is set to weaken further and it will become more difficult for nations to buy U.S. Treasuries.

“When the U.S. has to fund its deficit through the combination of issuing more Treasuries and printing more dollars, it is inevitable that the dollar will continue to weaken,” Deputy Governor Zhu said at a forum in Beijing today.

China, the biggest foreign holder of Treasuries with $798.9 billion of the securities, expressed concern this year at the safety of its dollar assets and central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan called for moves toward an alternative global currency. Zhu’s comments, which he said were a personal view, focused on the twin U.S. deficits, fiscal and current account.

The U.S. can’t expect other nations to increase purchases of Treasuries to fund its entire fiscal shortfall, said Zhu, a former vice president of Bank of China Ltd. Efforts by the U.S. to cut its current-account deficit mean other nations accumulate fewer dollars through trade, leaving them with less money to buy Treasuries, he added.

The Dollar Index, which IntercontinentalExchange Inc. uses to track the currency against those of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners, has declined 4.4 percent this year. The currency climbed today to the highest level in three months against the euro after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece’s debt rating yesterday.

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