- The Reserve Bank of India governor has said that the International Monetary Fund(IMF) should not allow the U.S to bilaterally label countries as currency manipulators.
- He questioned the US bi-annual report calling out emerging markets for currency manipulation.He said that such labelling should not be a bilateral prerogative when multilateral institutions like the IMF exist.
- The governor also questioned the IMF role in currency surveillance stating it chose to ignore the times when a currency comes under pressure but was intolerant of countries resisting currency appreciation.
- India was first included in the US watch list in 2017 after the RBI bought $52 billion worth of foreign exchange representing 1.8% of the country’s GDP to boost its forex reserves.
- However,the US treasury department had said that there was a notable decline in 2018 in the scale and frequency of foreign exchange purchases by India and removed India from the monitoring list.
