WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China recognizes the need to let its currency appreciate for the good of its domestic economy but the move will only come in the “medium term”, the International Monetary Fund’s Asia director said on Saturday.

IMF Asia Director Anoop Singh told Reuters that China and other export-focused Asian countries have been compelled by the stalling of growth in Western economies to seek a new model of sustained growth.

“That involves a range of policies to raise consumption (and) rebalancing and improving the exchange rate is part of this and I think we will see that over the medium term,” he said in an interview.

He would not be drawn further on how soon appreciation might be allowed.

Whether, when and by how much China might begin to let its tightly-controlled yuan appreciate is the focus of intense speculation on financial markets.

China’s exchange rate is also a growing political issue for the United States, where some politicians and manufacturers say keeping the yuan pegged at an artificially low rate hurts U.S. exports and steals jobs.

But there has been little sign of renewed pressure on Beijing from finance ministers and central bankers at four days of G20 and IMF talks in Washington — possibly a sign that officials expect China to let the yuan move soon.

WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) – U.S. legislation aimed at stopping China from “manipulating” its currency by imposing duties on Chinese products would get overwhelming support in the U.S. Senate, co-author Senator Lindsey Graham said on Thursday.

“We’d get 80 or 90 votes if we could ever get this sucker to the floor,” the South Carolina Republican lawmaker told a U.S. Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy hearing.

Graham said he hoped to move the bill, co-authored with 13 other senators, in the 100-member Senate this year.

“I understand why the administration is reluctant to push China, but unfortunately we’re running out of time. This will be the year,” he told reporters outside the hearing.

Many U.S. lawmakers complain that China’s currency, which is also known as the renminbi, is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving its companies an unfair price advantage in international trade.

Analysts expect that China is poised to resume policies that would allow its yuan to trade more widely against the currencies of trading partners.

Nicholas Lardy, a China expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s decision to postpone an April 15 official determination on whether China is a currency manipulator allowed scope for Chinese action.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China will chart its own course in reforming the yuan, President Hu Jintao said as President Barack Obama renewed his call for a more flexible Chinese currency.

The two heads of state, meeting for the first time since Sino-U.S. tensions over the yuan threatened in recent months to escalate into a serious trade dispute, chose their words carefully and, in the view of investors, left the door open for Beijing to resume appreciation in the coming weeks.

Hu said that China would not be pushed by external pressure and would instead base any decision on the yuan on its own economic needs. But he also made clear that it was committed to reform.

“China will firmly stick to a path of reforming the yuan’s exchange rate formation mechanism,” Hu told Obama, according to the official Xinhua news agency account of their discussion.

“In making reforms, we will give careful consideration to global economic developments and changes, as well as to China’s economic condition,” Hu said.

The yuan edged down in the offshore forwards market for a second day on Hu’s comments, but investors were still positioning themselves for a gradual resumption of the currency’s appreciation.

Beijing has frozen the yuan’s exchange rate against the dollar since mid-2008 to help cushion its economy from the global downturn, but the strength of China’s recovery has fueled criticism of this policy and market expectations that it is about to resume appreciation.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama repeated on Monday his call for more yuan flexibility during a meeting with China’s Hu Jintao, deploying careful diplomatic language while Beijing stressed dialogue.

A later report from the official Chinese news agency reflected a stiffer tone from Hu, the Chinese president, but in Washington there was a deliberate effort to stress the cordial nature of the talks.

“The president reaffirmed his view that it is important for a … sustained and balanced global economic recovery that China move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate,” Jeffrey Bader, a top White House adviser, told reporters.

The Obama administration wants to avoid embarrassing Hu over the yuan currency while he attends a nuclear security summit in Washington, shrugging off domestic political pressure for stern words against Beijing.

The U.S. Treasury recently delayed publication of a report that politicians had urged Obama to use to name China a currency manipulator, paving the way to eventual official action.

Foreign currency investors will scrutinize Obama’s and Hu’s words for evidence of a shift in Beijing’s yuan policy. Analysts say this makes sense for China in the long term, but they do not expect significant changes in the immediate future.

A Chinese official in Washington separately characterized the two leaders’ discussions on the sidelines of the security summit here as “positive and constructive”.

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Monday repeated his call for more yuan flexibility during a meeting with China’s Hu Jintao, deploying careful diplomatic language while Beijing stressed dialogue.

“The president reaffirmed his view that it is important for a … sustained and balanced global economic recovery that China move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate,” Jeffrey Bader, a top White House adviser, told reporters.

The Obama administration wants to avoid embarrassing Chinese President Hu Jintao over the yuan currency while he attends a nuclear security summit in Washington, shrugging off domestic political pressure for stern words against Beijing.

The U.S. Treasury recently delayed publication of a report that politicians had urged Obama to use to name as China a currency manipulator, paving the way to eventual official action.

Foreign currency investors will scrutinize Obama’s and Hu’s words for evidence of a shift in yuan policy in Beijing. Analysts say this makes sense for China in the long term, but do not expect significant changes in the immediate future.

Emphasizing the cordial nature of their meeting, a Chinese official separately characterized the two leaders’ discussions on the sidelines of a nuclear security summit here as “positive and constructive”.

Chinese spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said Hu told Obama the two nations “should properly resolve economic and trade frictions through consultations on an equal footing and jointly uphold the larger interests of China-US economic cooperation.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s drive for new sanctions on Iran picked up momentum on Monday in talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao that included a wide-ranging discussion of U.S.-Chinese economic differences.

Their face-to-face session came at the start of a two-day nuclear security summit of nearly 50 countries aimed at finding ways to prevent terrorists from gaining access to nuclear materials.

Ukraine provided the first example by agreeing to give up its highly enriched uranium.

U.S. and Chinese officials who briefed reporters after the talks described a positive, constructive atmosphere on Iran, as Obama seeks a new United Nations sanctions resolution within a matter of weeks.

Obama also raised U.S. concerns about the high value of China’s currency, the yuan, a U.S. official said.

Hu told Obama that China and the United States “share the same overall goal on the Iranian nuclear issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said.

Ma provided no details on the talks and repeated China’s standard call for “dialogue and negotiations” with Iran. That left unclear how far China is willing to go toward tougher sanctions on Iran, a country with which Beijing has significant economic ties.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States on Monday reiterated its call for China’s currency to be market-based, as lawmakers warned they would act if there was no movement from China on revaluing the yuan.

“The president has spoken repeatedly and recently that China’s currency must be market-based,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.

With China on holiday there was no official response from Beijing to a weekend announcement that U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner would postpone a report due out on April 15 that could have branded China a “currency manipulator.”

However, a Chinese government economist said that while the U.S. decision to delay the contentious report was “a positive signal” that would permit more talks, it did not mean Beijing will change the value of the yuan any time soon.

“At least the U.S. side has created some room for further consultations and negotiations,” said Huo Jianguo, head of the Commerce Ministry’s think-thank, of the U.S. decision.

“But I don’t think there will be a yuan adjustment in the near-term. We need to see whether China’s export recovery will be sustained and need to see whether companies can cope with a stronger yuan.”

The U.S. decision followed Thursday’s announcement that Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend a nuclear security summit meeting in Washington April 12-13 and seems to be a move to keep tensions in the key bilateral relationship in check.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China’s currency is clearly undervalued, but pressure on Beijing to make its currency rise in value won’t trim the U.S. trade deficit with China or reduce the jobless rate, say American economists.

Political pressure is building on the Obama administration to name China a “currency manipulator” in a mid-April report, and lawmakers are threatening to slap tariffs on Chinese goods to offset any export subsidy a cheap currency gives China.

However, many trade economists and businessmen say that at best, a heavy-handed U.S. approach on currency will fail. At worst, it could backfire, sparking a U.S.-China trade war.

Instead, Washington should address the currency and other factors behind global financial imbalances in a multilateral setting. Bilaterally, the Americans should focus on Chinese trade barriers that suppress sales to China and may violate World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, they say.

“The currency is undervalued, period. It’s also a structural distortion because the world’s second-largest economy shouldn’t be pegging to the largest economy,” said Derek Scissors of the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Economists say China’s currency is pegged to the dollar at a rate that is between 15 and 40 percent lower than the level markets would set if the yuan were freely traded.

Slamming the Chinese over currency is politically appealing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China’s currency is clearly undervalued, but pressure on Beijing to make its currency rise in value won’t trim the U.S. trade deficit with China or reduce the jobless rate, say American economists.

Political pressure is building on the Obama administration to name China a “currency manipulator” in a mid-April report, and lawmakers are threatening to slap tariffs on Chinese goods to offset any export subsidy a cheap currency gives China.

However, many trade economists and businessmen say that at best, a heavy-handed U.S. approach on currency will fail. At worst, it could backfire, sparking a U.S.-China trade war.

Instead, Washington should address the currency and other factors behind global financial imbalances in a multilateral setting. Bilaterally, the Americans should focus on Chinese trade barriers that suppress sales to China and may violate World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, they say.

“The currency is undervalued, period. It’s also a structural distortion because the world’s second-largest economy shouldn’t be pegging to the largest economy,” said Derek Scissors of the Heritage Foundation in Washington.

Economists say China’s currency is pegged to the dollar at a rate that is between 15 and 40 percent lower than the level markets would set if the yuan were freely traded.

Slamming the Chinese over currency is politically appealing