Free Republic

China’s central bank governor on Sunday affirmed an official promise to avoid manipulating its currency to boost exports, an issue he said American and Chinese negotiators discussed in their latest talks aimed at ending a tariff war. Yi Gang gave no indication the two sides reached agreements beyond previous commitments produced by meetings of the Group of 20 major economies. He spoke at a news conference during the annual meeting of China’s ceremonial legislature. “We stress that we will never use the exchange rate for competitive purposes, nor will we use it to boost China’s exports,” Yi said. Yi took...

With the Russian ruble in a nosedive under the pressure of Western sanctions and slumping oil prices, the country’s central bank decided Monday to freely float the currency in markets and stop regularly spending billions in a vain attempt to stem its fall. The bank has been burning through its reserves, which plunged from $510 billion at the year’s start to about $400 billion now, to soften the drop in the ruble, which has lost about half its value since the beginning of the year as investors pulled money out of Russia and the economy headed toward recession. It spent...