Transcript: View From The Top With Robert Zoellick, President Of The World Bank |
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November 20, 2009
PART 1: On China and the dollar FT: Thank you for joining us, Mr Zoellick. RZ: Pleased to be with you. FT: What’s your verdict on Obama’s trip to China? How important is it and what’s come out of it?
PART 1: On China and the dollar
FT: Thank you for joining us, Mr Zoellick.
RZ: Pleased to be with you.
FT: What’s your verdict on Obama’s trip to China? How important is it and what’s come out of it?
RZ: Well, I think there’s a natural tendency to try to treat these with quick scorecards and, as I was reading the papers today, I was actually just thinking you really won’t know until you see more how the policy evolves, because sometimes some of the most important things are the things done in the private conversations, the relationships and some of the issues that I hope they’ve laid some groundwork on. Now, some of those are actually going to be in the foreign policy area; how they deal with North Korea, how they deal with Iran. The ones that obviously have gotten the most immediate attention are the economic rebalancing issues and there my sense is that the Chinese, for their own reasons, recognise the need to address the savings consumption balance. It’ll probably take longer than people would like but they’re in the mood to go in that direction. As for the currency issue, I think it’ll take them longer because they’re still anxious about the destabilising affects. But, what was interesting from the meeting I was at in Singapore, the Apec, was that this is not only an issue that’s being raised by the United States, but it’s also being raised by members... other countries in Asia because they are affected obviously by the effect of Chinese devaluation as long as it’s linked to the dollar. So, that will also create some pressure over time.
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