China should gradually unshackle its exchange rate regime, British finance minister Gordon Brown said today at the start of a three-day tour to the country.
Beijing came under pressure at this month's G7 meeting to ease its currency's peg to the dollar but said it had no timetable for such action despite complaints that its stance was making life difficult for other exporters.
After meeting with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and finance minister Jin Renqing in Beijing, Mr Brown said China was pushing ahead with fundamental reforms to expenditure management and its banking sector.
"In a modern open economy, capital account liberalisation is the way forward but so that it is not destabilising it will be best achieved in a sequenced way," Mr Brown urged in a speech.
"So from experience a sequenced approach can benefit not only China but the global economy as a whole."
Mr Brown said each continent had a part to play in boosting global growth: "America in addressing its deficits and Europe and Asia in addressing the vexed questions of structural reform."