Finance October 5 to 9

飞雪寒冰

The International Monetary Fund should improve mechanisms to monitor international capital markets and ensure that exchange rates of major reserve currencies remain stable, People’s Bank of China vice governor Yi Gang said recently at an IMF meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. Yi said major risks to global economic recovery include rising protectionist sentiments and imbalanced macroeconomic policy stances. China will maintain its current macroeconomic policies while safeguarding various risks, including inflation, he added.

飞雪寒冰

Robust consumer spending during the October holidays in China reinforced hopes that consumption growth will continue to play a major role in the economic recovery, according to Lu Ting, a Bank of America-Merrill Lynch economist. Selected retail enterprises in China booked sales of 14 billion yuan in the first three days of China's weeklong October holidays, up 15 percent year-on-year, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. The firming up of the recovery and the improved outlook for employment have boosted consumer confidence, despite potential threats to economic stability, including a possible widening of the swine flu outbreak, Lu said in an Oct. 6 report.

飞雪寒冰

Chinese Finance minister Xie Xuren has called for further reform of the International Monetary Fund's quota system to better reflect the positions of emerging nations. The IMF should establish a new automatic mechanism to adjust country quotas to suit changes in economic strength, Xie said at the annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank on Oct. 6 in Istanbul. The IMF's communique after the Oct. 6 meeting said that quota system reforms will be based on the fund's existing formula. China’s proposal was not accepted.