BEIJING, June 18: China, which is facing a serious crisis following the sharp devaluation of the Japanese yen, today welcomed the combined efforts by Japan and the United States to prop up the currency market and the yen.China's central bank governor Dai Xianglong, while reassuring the world that the yuan will not be devalued, expressed relief at the intervention of Japan and the United States by buying Japanese yen."We are glad to see that the exchange rate of the Japanese yen is picking up," Dai said at the fourth annual meeting of the Association of Development and Industrial Banks in Asia, which opened here today.
The Japanese yen was quoted at 135.70-75 to the US dollar in early trading in Tokyo today after Japan intervened in the currency markets to buy yen, reports Xinhua news agency.
The US Federal Reserve also bought yen on behalf of Tokyo, pushing the currency back from its heavy falls in the past two weeks. Dai also reaffirmed the Chinese yuan will not be devalued.
"It's unnecessary to dothat," Dai was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, Sun Zhenyu, vice-minister of foreign trade and economic cooperation, has denied a report quoting him as saying that China would consider a devaluation of the yuan if the slide in the Japanese yen led to a plunge in China's exports. The official China Daily, quoting Sun, said that as a senior official in charge of the country's foreign trade, he would not make any rash statement about such a sensitive issue as the devaluation of the yuan.
China has reiterated many times that as a "responsible country" China will not resort to devaluation of its currency to boost exports and that it is willing to pay a price for not devaluating the currency, it said.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
