US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said today that he was pushing China to speed up its move toward greater currency flexibility, but said he wants to achieve more than that in the next two years.
"My goal is to make significant progress toward a fully market-determined, floating Chinese currency," Mr Paulson said in remarks prepared for the Senate Banking Committee, where he testified about Treasury's semi-annual currency report.
The last report, issued just before Christmas, had again declined to name China a currency manipulator, angering many legislators who said China keeps its yuan currency undervalued to gain unfair advantage in trade with the United States.
"China does not yet have the currency policy that we want it to have and that it needs,"Mr Paulson conceded. "We are actively pressing the Chinese to introduce greater currency flexibility and undertake wider market reforms."