A senior official from China's Ministry of Finance said the yuan is not scheduled to feature in discussions at a weekend meeting of finance ministers and outside pressure can only delay currency reform. "The yuan is not on the agenda. If it is discussed in private, who knows?" Zhu Guangyao, head of the Finance Ministry's international department, told Reuters on the sidelines of a meeting of European and Asian finance ministers in the northern port city of Tianjin.
China is under pressure from its trading partners, especially the United States, to loosen the yuan's peg to the dollar. But Zhu said outside pressure and hot speculative currency inflows could only delay the process of foreign currency reform.
"We would like to have dialogue, real exchange with all colleagues in the world, but we never just accept outside pressure," he said.
"Pressure and speculation the only function is delay of reform," he added.