Snow says China making progress for flexible currency

US Treasury Secretary John Snow said Thursday that China had now taken all the steps needed to prepare for the move to a more flexible currency.

Snow told the Senate Banking Committee that the US government's nearly two-year currency consultations with China was showing results. China had now taken all the steps needed to prepare their financial system for the move to a more flexible currency.

However, he said that the US government was not insisting that China moves immediately to a currency whose value was set totally in global currency markets. "We are not calling for an immediate full float with fully liberalized capital markets. This would be a mistake at this time -- China's banking sector is not prepared," Snow said.

Thursday's "Wall Street Journal" also cited Snow as saying that a more flexible system in China alone would not solve global imbalances. Solving the global imbalances was the shared responsibility of all major economic participants.

Source: Xinhua