国际英语新闻：Blaming Chinese currency for global imbalance not right: official

BEIJING, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- It was wrong to blame the foreign exchange rate of the renminbi (RMB), China's currency, for the global economic imbalance, Chinese commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian said here Thursday.

"RMB foreign exchange rate is neither the root of trade imbalance between China and the United States, nor the main cause of the world economic imbalance," Yao told a press conference.

Such an accusation lacked basic judgement, he added.

Yao said maintaining a stable foreign exchange rate of RMB was a key support to the stability of the global financial market and also a main policy target in China.

China's current foreign trade was still sluggish and it would take about two or three years for the foreign trade to resume levels before the global financial crisis, Yao said.

China's favorable balance of trade dropped 64 percent in 2009 with higher growth rates in imports than exports and the trend was expected to continue in the coming half year, Yao said.

Latest exports growth mainly came from demand of enterprises to refill their repertories, not a thorough change in global investment and consumption situations, Yao said.

China's enterprises still faced difficulties as foreign demand did not recover markedly, he added.

Latest growth in China's imports mainly came from staple commodities' prices rebound, while latest growth in imports of common goods mainly came from China's 4 trillion yuan (585.65 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package, Yao said.