Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China, reiterated Sunday that China will reform its foreign exchange regime in a "gradual, effective, and controllable" way.

 

When interviewed by reporters, Zhou said that China is a big country and has to consider many aspects in its policymaking.

 

"But the direction of China's foreign exchange regime is fixed, there will be no way back," said Zhou.

 

On the IMF's voting rights reform, Zhou said China welcomes IMF's reform. Some developing countries, which had different views on the voting rights reform of the IMF, are not against China, but hold viewpoint that the IMF should set up a complete mechanism on voting rights, said Zhou.

 

He continued to say China has adopted effective measures to curb its overheating economy and that these measures are beginning to take effects. The central bank has raised the benchmark interest rates and deposit reserve ratio twice on the run, said Zhou.

 

"But monetary policy will have a time lag, so you could not expect it to take effect tomorrow, when you adopt a measure today," said Zhou.

 

Zhou is now in Singapore for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2006)