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Park 'deliberately' highlights weak yen problem at G20
President Park Geun-hye speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the International Convention Center at Yanqi Lake, Beijing, on Nov. 11, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Cheong Wa Dae released the photo Monday while explaining the achievements of Park’s recent trip to China, Myanmar and Australia. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
By Jun Ji-hye
President Park Geun-hye said on Sunday that she “deliberately” pointed out a problem associated with the weakening Japanese yen during the G20 summit held in Brisbane, Australia.
“I decided to talk about the issue openly because I thought I could not leave the problem as it is,” said Park in a rare press meeting held on the way back to Seoul.
The comment was an answer to a reporter’s question about the context of her remarks made during the summit in which she said “recent falls or gains in the value of currencies in major advanced countries could deal a blow to some emerging markets.”
Though Park did not mention Japan by name, her comment was construed as chiding Japan for its monetary steps which are causing Seoul’s top exporters to lose their competitiveness in the global marketplace. Aiming at boosting Tokyo’s sagging economy, the latest move by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” is a version of quantitative easing, an easy money policy.
Park arrived in Seoul, Monday, after concluding a set of multilateral summits regarding the global economy and security issues on a trip that took her to China, Myanmar and Australia.
During a 30 minute-long discussion with reporters aboard the presidential aircraft, Park commented, “When the economy was in bad shape, a number of developed countries received economic contributions from developing nations. It is improper that the developed countries, which recovered their economies to some extent, are now carrying out monetary policies that only consider their positions.”
She added that every policy from a country can have a direct impact on one another because the global economy is so closely integrated.
Regarding her suggestion of a trilateral meeting with Chinese and Japanese leaders, she said, “I made the offer because I thought that conditions had improved this year compared to last year. Still, there remains a foreign ministers’ meeting so it remains to be seen how things will play out.”
She expressed hope for a trilateral meeting during last week’s summit between Southeast Asian countries and their three Northeast Asian dialogue partners ― South Korea, China and Japan ― in Myanmar.
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