Friday 19 March 2010


ROACH REBUFFS KRUGMAN CALL TO PRESSURE CHINA ON YUAN

Christopher Anstey and Susan Li

Bloomberg, March 19, 2010

Morgan Stanley Asia Chairman Stephen Roach said that Paul Krugman’s call to push China to allow a stronger yuan is "very bad" advice and that increased Chinese spending is a better way of reducing trade imbalances.

“We should take out the baseball bat on Paul Krugman -- I mean I think that the advice is completely wrong,” Roach said in an Bloomberg Television interview in Beijing when asked about Krugman’s call, characterized as akin to taking a baseball bat to China. “We’re lashing out at China rather than tending to our own business,” which is raising U.S. savings, Roach said.

“I’m a little surprised at Steve for saying that,” said Krugman, the Princeton University professor and Nobel laureate in economics, in a telephone interview when asked to respond to Roach. “What I said is actually based on pretty careful economic analysis. We have a world economy which is depressed by China artificially keeping its currency undervalued.”

The debate between the two economists echoes verbal clashes between the nations, with Chinese leaders repeatedly saying that their yuan policy isn’t the cause of the U.S. trade gap. American lawmakers have urged the Obama administration to step up pressure on China for keeping its exchange rate unchanged, a stance criticized as providing an unfair advantage.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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