BEIJING, May 12 -- China was technically ready to lift its currency peg and would have done so sooner had the United States not pushed it so hard to do so, said the deputy governor of the People¡¯s Bank of China, China¡¯s central bank.

    China was technically ready for currency reform, but wouldn¡¯t be pushed into it by the United States, deputy governor Wu Xiaoling said in an interview with Japan¡¯s Nihon Keizai newspaper published Wednesday.

    Wu also said China ¡°wants the international community to let it decide for itself¡± on the timing of loosening the peg on the yuan.

    Wu criticized the United States for pressuring China on the currency issue, in particular by trying to pass a bill that would impose tariffs on Chinese imports unless the currency reforms were carried out, the paper said.

    ¡°The pace of reforms would have been faster than people had expected if the United States had not created such an environment,¡± she said.

    Any increased pressure from Washington would only make the reforms more difficult, the paper quoted Wu as saying.

    A U.S. Treasury Department spokesman Monday also said China had made ¡°sufficient progress¡± to introduce exchange rate flexibility, after meetings between mid-ranking Chinese and U.S. financial officials.

    A government research report released Tuesday also said revaluing the yuan by 3 to 5 percent against the dollar this year could slow China¡¯s annual export growth to less than 10 percent from last year¡¯s 35 percent.

    The report, written by Zhai Zhihong with the trade department of the National Bureau of Statistics, said China¡¯s exports would probably fall sharply if the regulator revalued the yuan.

    (Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencis)