US Treasury says no major trading partner manipulates currency

The US Treasury Department said on Friday that no major US trading partner manipulated the rate of exchange between its currency and the US dollar.

In its semiannual Report to Congress: Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of Major Trading Partners of the United States, the Treasury Department said Vietnam and some other economies will continue to be under enhanced monitoring for their currency practices, adding that it has conducted enhanced analysis of Vietnam macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies and it is "thus far satisfied with progress made by Vietnam."

Meanwhile, the US Treasury has determined that none of these economies manipulated its exchange rate to "prevent effective balance of payments adjustment or gain an unfair competitive advantage in trade" under the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, according to the report.

However, the Treasury put 12 other economies, namely China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Ireland, Italy, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Mexico and Switzerland, on its "monitoring list," which means currency practices of these economies will bear close attention of the US government.

"Treasury continues to carefully track the foreign exchange and macroeconomic policies of US trading partners under the requirements of both the 1988 Act and the 2015 Act, and to review the appropriate metrics for assessing how policies contribute to currency misalignments and global imbalances," the report said.