Conflicts over currency valuation cannot be resolved through confrontation but only by building consensus, Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.
Following his speech on the “Emerging global economic architecture” Mr. Mukherjee responded to a question on the U.S.-China trade and currency relationship, saying, “In respect of the currency valuation, my approach is that we should try to engage the countries [concerned] in negotiations and try to build up a consensus through which the matter could be resolved.”
However, in his speech at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington he noted that in order to achieve sustained growth and stability, global structural imbalances had to be addressed, “sooner rather than later.”
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In particular, the huge build-up of reserves in some countries and deficits elsewhere, massive trade surpluses in some economies and deep trade deficits in others were not sustainable, the Minister said.
Mr. Mukherjee said that by way of resolving these issues, more nations ought to come forward and share the responsibility for contributing to global prosperity and “critical gaps” in international policymaking and regulation, in risk management and international development cooperation needed to be bridged.