Source: The New York Times                         Date: 17 March, 2011

China's premier on Monday ruled out allowing a faster rise in the value of its tightly controlled currency to fight surging inflation, citing the danger of possible job losses and the impact on Chinese businesses. At a news conference, Premier Wen Jiabao repeated Chinese complaints that the U.S. Federal Reserve's efforts to spur American growth are partly to blame for global inflation, though he avoided mentioning the Fed by name.

Mr. Wen said Beijing is taking steps to rein in surging inflation that pushed up consumer prices by 4.9 percent in February. But he said the yuan's rise against the U.S. dollar would be kept gradual. Analysts say a stronger yuan would cool Chinese inflation by making imported oil and other goods cheaper in Chinese currency terms. Beijing has restrained the yuan's rise since the 2008 global crisis to help Chinese exporters that employ millions of workers compete abroad.

"The appreciation of the Chinese currency should be a gradual process, because we must bear in mind its impact on Chinese businesses and our employment situation," Mr. Wen said at the news conference, held following the closing of the annual session of China's legislature.

Beijing faces pressure from Washington and other trading partners to ease currency controls that they say keeps the yuan undervalued, giving China's exporters an unfair price advantage and swelling its multibillion-dollar trade surplus.