Washington: The US Treasury Department has removed India along with Italy, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam from the currency monitoring list of major trading partners.
India was on this list for the last two years. Under this system, the currency activities and macroeconomic policies of major business partners are closely monitored.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen held a meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday during her visit to India. China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan are the seven countries on the current watch list, the Finance Department said in its half-yearly report to Parliament.
For the last two years, India was on the US currency monitoring list. The US prepares this list to monitor the currency of its major partners. Under this arrangement, the currency activities and macroeconomic policies of major trade partners are closely monitored. Those countries are placed on the watch list, whose foreign exchange rate it suspects.
In this way, India’s coming out of this list shows America’s growing trust in the country, about which Janet Yellen has also said.
The report said that the countries that have been removed from the list have met only one of the three criteria in two consecutive reports. China is under close supervision of the Finance Department for failing to publish its foreign exchange interventions and lack of transparency in its exchange rate mechanism, the report said. Other countries on the list are China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.