IMF chief warns on exchange rate wars

FINANCIAL TIMES:  Governments are risking a currency war if they try to use exchange rates to solve domestic problems, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned.

The comments by Dominique Strauss-Kahn came before the yen fell as a result of the Bank of Japan shifting towards quantitative monetary easing, cutting its key interest rate and proposing a new fund to buy government bonds and other assets.

 “There is clearly the idea beginning to circulate that currencies can be used as a policy weapon,” Mr Strauss-Kahn told the Financial Times on Monday.

“Translated into action, such an idea would represent a very serious risk to the global recovery.  Any such approach would have a negative and very damaging longer-run impact.” …  (more)

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