Treasury Dep't Labels Switzerland, Vietnam As Currency Manipulators

The US Treasury Department has labelled Switzerland and Vietnam as currency manipulators, but stopped short of officially stating the same about China.

• The semi-annual foreign exchange report stated that Switzerland and Vietnam had kept their currencies lower in an effort to stop "effective balance of payments adjustments".
• In the report China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, and India were all included on the watch list of potential manipulators without being named outright. The final three were added in the latest report, while Ireland was removed.
• This marks the first time since April 2019 that the US has named a country officially as a currency manipulator.
• Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin stated "The Treasury department has taken a strong step today to safeguard economic growth and opportunity for American workers and businesses. Treasury will follow up on its findings with respect to Vietnam and Switzerland to work toward eliminating practices that create unfair advantages for foreign competitors."
• The SNB responded to the announcement with some zest, stating that the SNB's interventions in the FX market do not sevre to stop BoP adjustments nor to gain a competitive advantage for the Swiss economy, that Switzerland does not engage in any form of currency manipulation and, indeed, that the SNB would be willing to intervene more strongly in the FX market.