Chances of currency war if global economic crisis deepens: FM

23 Sep 2011 Evaluate

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee warned international community that if the current uncertainty in the international economy deepens, then there is danger of currency war. Giving the stress on corporation among the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), finance minister said that such a currency war can be avoided through dialogue and not through competitive devaluations.

Answering to the question at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mukherjee said, ‘yes, if the crisis deepens further and there is greater volatility in financial flows, there is an increased risk of this (currency war) happening. 'But our view is that if such tensions arise, it should be eased through the dialogue and not through competitive devaluations,' he added.

Finance Minister noted that the currencies used in BRICS countries should be widely appreciated and should be taken into account while determining the ingredients of special drawing rights (SDR) maintained by the IMF, as these nations' contributions to global output and the economy is increasingly substantially.

However, by adding further he said, 'but we are not suggesting right now, because there are many other factors which ought to be taken into account, including free convertibility and other things which are not uniform, but the importance of these currencies has increased.' Finance minister’s comment has come at a time when Indian rupee is depreciating because of the debt crisis in US and Eurozone nations. The rupee weakened to 50 against the dollar on September 23, a level not seen in more than 28-months, as investors globally continued to dump high yielding riskier assets for the safety of government bonds.  

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