Dutch fin min and Eurogroup head with comments earlier from Shanghai
- G20 leaders have agreed to inform each other in advance about policy decisions that could lead to devaluations of their ccys
- in cases where devaluation is a consequence of mon pol "motivated by real macro economic domestic reasons" then members must make sure to inform each other in advance to avoid surprises
"If policy decisions lead to devaluation, we should inform and consult in advance between the different countries."
He added that the decision was prompted by concerns among some of G20 financial leaders about the possibility of competitive devaluations in Japan or China
"Everyone was quite firm that we mustn't go down that road, refrain from that completely,"
"There were some concerns that we would get into a situation of competitive devaluations and once a country starts, the risk is very large that the next country will follow.
Dijsselbloem said information exchanges would take place "in the G20 context" and through the IMF when "useful".
"The key thing is that we want to make sure that there are no surprises. This is an extra commitment between the G20 countries that they will refrain from competitive devaluations"
The full extent of this will be examined closely in the days and weeks ahead but it seems on first sight to be making the race to weaken ccys that much more tolerable by G20. One could quite easily argue though that this, at least behind the scenes, has been ever thus.
More from Reuters here
Dijsselbloem - No to devaluation, but if you do let then us know first
