China Frgn Ministry: Inappropriate To Discuss Yuan FX at G-20

BEIJING (MNI) - Any discussions of the yuan exchange rate issue at next week's Group of 20 leaders' summit would be "inappropriate, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said Thursday.

G-20 leaders are due to meet in Toronto on June 26-27.

"We believe that discussing the exchange rate at the G-20 is inappropriate," Qin said at the ministry's regular press briefing.

Qin repeated that any reform on the yuan exchange rate would be based on international economic conditions. He noted that there remain "unstable factors" in the world economy, adding that the European sovereign debt crisis would be one of the main issues to be discussed at the G-20 meetings.

He repeated that the Chinese government strongly opposed foreign pressure on the issue.

He also repeated that the yuan exchange rate was not the cause of the international financial crisis, nor a barrier to the world economic recovery.

The G-20 leaders' summit is unlikely to have much to say about the yuan exchange rate, given that the communique from the meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bank heads held in Korea two weeks ago did not mention exchange rates at all.

The market still expects the China government to allow the yuan to appreciate against the greenback over the longer term, but expectations of a near-term rise have diminished significantly in recent weeks given comments by Chinese government officials expressing concern about the impact of the European debt crisis on world growth and Chinese exports.

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