Despite US pressure to use the exchange rate to make Chinese exports less competitive, China will not revalue its currency to adjust bilateral trade imbalances, Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, announced on Tuesday.

Mr Zhou used an interview with the People’s Daily to shed light on the bank’s monetary and economic policies amid continuing meditations of an inevitable change in interest rates and the currency. His remarks make it evident that China regards its currency revaluation to be not a matter of urgency and that the government has not decided on a new exchange rate mechanism. China has been pressed to revalue the renminbi that was fixed to the US dollar for a decade by Washington and Brussels, since it gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage.

Rob Nichols, US Treasury spokesman, said in an interview with Richard McGregor: “The administration strongly believes a flexible, market-determined exchange rate regime, along with free trade and free flow of capital, is best for large economies like China’s.”

Many Chinese officials are also calling for a more flexible exchange rate, since in their opinion the peg does not allow the government to introduce an independent monetary policy.

Mr Zhou stressed that China would introduce a more flexible exchange rate when it deems it to be appropriate and put an emphasis not on a one-off revaluation but on creating a mechanism to enable the renminbi to float more freely.