China’s top banker says rate hikes by Western nations fuel global financial instability
- Yi Gang, People’s Bank of China governor, addresses meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee in Washington
- His attendance marks the first visit to the US capitol by a senior Chinese economic official since the onset of the pandemic
China’s top central banker told attendees at an international finance meeting in Washington on Friday that rapid interest rate hikes and recent bank failures in Western countries were the major sources of global instability.
Yi Gang, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, also attributed worldwide inflation in energy prices to “geopolitical conflicts” but did not link it to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Instead, he criticised “friend-shoring” for adding strains on global supply chains, a reference to a practice pursued by the US, according to his statement on Friday at a ministerial meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC).
The IMFC gathering is one of the annual spring meetings by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
China sent Yi; a deputy, Xuan Changneng; and a Chinese vice-minister of finance, Wang Dongwei, to Washington for the spring meetings. Their attendance constituted the first time senior Chinese economic and financial officials had travelled to the US since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic three years ago.
