墨西哥警告人民幣貶值或引發貨幣戰爭
Chinese market turmoil and the renminbi’s fall to a four-year low against the US dollar risks the prospect of “perverse” currency wars, Mexico has warned.
墨西哥警告稱，中國股市動盪以及人民幣兌美元匯率降至四年新低，可能會引發“悖理”的貨幣戰爭。
Latin America’s second-biggest economy, which saw its currency tumble to a historic low of 17.72 pesos to the dollar on Thursday — on top of a slide of more than 14 per cent in 2015 — would be in the front line since the peso is the most widely traded emerging market currency and is often used by traders as a proxy.
這個拉美第二大經濟體會是頭一批受到影響的，原因是墨西哥比索是交易量最大的新興市場貨幣之一，常被交易員用作新興市場貨幣的代表。週四，墨西哥比索暴跌至歷史低點，即1美元兌17.72比索。2015年，比索相對美元下跌了14%以上。
“There is real concern that, in the face of the deceleration of the Chinese economy, the public policy response will be to start a round of competitive devaluations,” said Luis Videgaray, finance minister.
墨西哥財長路易斯比德加賴(Luis Videgaray)表示：“一個切實的擔憂是，面對中國經濟減速，各國採取的公共政策迴應會是開啓一輪競爭性貨幣貶值。”
He called that prospect “frankly perverse” because copycat devaluations would leave everyone in the same position and would not really alter anything. Mexico’s peso floats freely, but the central bank has been auctioning dollars in recent months to shore up the currency.
他表示這一前景“其實是悖理的”，因爲你貶我也貶只會讓大家處於同一位置，不會真正改變什麼。墨西哥比索是自由浮動的，但墨西哥央行近幾個月來一直在拍賣美元以支撐比索。
Mexico had already been bracing itself for a volatile year before Chinese market turmoil got 2016 off to a painful start. Attempts by Chinese authorities to support share prices and the renminbi sparked global concern about their ability to manage a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
在中國股市動盪讓2016年邁出痛苦的第一步前，墨西哥已然在準備應對動盪的一年。中國當局爲支撐股市和人民幣而作出的種種努力，令全球市場擔憂他們是否有能力應對世界第二大經濟體的經濟放緩。
Some observers attribute the renminbi’s slide to a four-year low against the dollar on Thursday as an attempt by Beijing to pursue competitive devaluations on behalf of its struggling exporters. However, the People’s Bank of China is considered unlikely to be intentionally stoking a currency war — last month alone, it sold an estimated $113bn in reserves to stabilise its depreciating currency.
部分觀察人士認爲，人民幣兌美元匯率在週四下滑至四年低點，是中國政府爲幫助該國陷入困境的出口商而試圖推行競爭性貶值。但人們認爲，中國央行不太可能是在蓄意煽動匯率戰爭——爲使不斷貶值的人民幣企穩，中國央行僅在去年12月一個月就售出了大約1130億美元外匯儲備。
