Trump Says Weaker Chinese Yuan Is ‘Called Currency Manipulation’

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said the latest decline in the yuan is “called ‘currency manipulation”' and indicated he'd like the Federal Reserve to act to counter the Chinese action.

“China dropped the price of their currency to an almost a historic low,” Trump tweeted Monday. “It's called ‘currency manipulation.' Are you listening Federal Reserve? This is a major violation which will greatly weaken China over time!”

Trump's comments come after China responded to the president's threat to raise tariffs on $300 billion of imports from the Asian nation, letting the yuan tumble to the weakest level in more than a decade and asking state-owned companies to suspend imports of U.S. agricultural products.

The president's tweet suggests he's continuing to goad the U.S. central bank to ease monetary policy to counter the action rather than instruct the Treasury Department to directly intervene to weaken the greenback. The Fed lowered rates by a quarter percentage point last week in response to a darkening global outlook and uncertainty caused by Trump's trade war, and signaled the door was open to further moves if needed.

Trump said last month he hadn't ruled out taking action to weaken the U.S. currency, though White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Friday that the administration would not undertake currency intervention.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has refrained from labeling China a currency manipulator in Treasury's semi-annual foreign exchange policy report to Congress, reneging on Trump's campaign promises to do so on “day one” of his presidency.

--With assistance from Saleha Mohsin.

To contact the reporter on this story: Scott Lanman in Washington at slanman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net, Alister Bull

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