2010-06-17 09:12

PARIS: The General-Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said on Wednesday that he believed a progressive appreciation of the yuan, the Chinese currency.

"I see no reason not to believe the strategy that Chinese authorities announced, which is that the rise in value of RMB will take place progressively according to the interest of China's economy," Strauss-Kahn said at a Paris conference.

The conference was organized by the French Treasury, a branch under the Economy Ministry, about the Europe-China economic ties, and gathered around 200 delegates from Europe and China.

The grand imbalance in global economy has witnessed "several changes in data," which include the increasing saving rate in the United States and a reform of China's economy, Strauss-Kahn indicated in a closing speech addressed at the conference.

"We noticed that the American growth is completely driven by consumption, so we can say finally the rising saving rate may be temporary, but more saving means less deficit," Strass-Kahn said.

"There is rebalancing that goes in the right direction," the IMF head underlined, citing "a progressively appreciation of the currency" of China on the other side.

"I see little that we can convince them (Chinese authorities) to act against their interest, however, it is possible to convince them that their interest is in there," Strauss-Kahn said.

"The rebalance will take place because it's the interest of Chinese economy, and it will still be very very gradually," he added.

The IMF head gave a half-hour address at the half-day conference.

The conference was themed on "Europe-China to tackle the common challenges," and attended by French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, ex-Premier Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Chinese Ambassador Kong Quan and financial experts, bank leaders and business representatives.