MNI: Treasury - No Major Trading Partners Manipulating FX

No major U.S. trading partners are manipulating their currencies to incur an unfair trade advantage, the Treasury said Thursday, although it has placed seven countries including China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan on its monitoring list.

The report acknowledges the uncertain global economic outlook over the last year and actions by some to intervene in currency markets but concludes the "bulk of currency intervention by our partners was in fact aimed to strengthen, not weaken, their currencies."

"Treasury is cognizant that a range of approaches by developing and emerging economies to global economic headwinds may be warranted in certain circumstances,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in a statement.

"No major U.S. trading partner manipulated the rate of exchange between its currency and the U.S. dollar for purposes of preventing effective balance of payments adjustments or gaining unfair competitive advantage in international trade during the four quarters through June 2022," the Treasury said in its semi-annual Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners.

The report highlights Switzerland's FX practices and says Treasury will continue its enhanced bilateral engagement to discuss policy options to address the underlying causes of its external imbalances.