From Chinese Press

Greater financial say

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-19 08:33

Beijing-based Dagong Global Credit Rating Co released its first - and also the first by a non-Western country - credit rating report on 50 countries on July 11. Emerging economies like China shouldn't wait any longer to exercise their right to speak on global financial matters, says an article on Xinhuanet.com. Excerpts:

There has been consensus among all countries that the global credit rating system should be reformed.

To do this, China's financial credit rating agencies should take an active part in the reform. US corporations such as Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch IBCA have long usurped the right to be the ones to decide international credit ratings.

The global financial crisis and the sovereign debt crisis of Greece have exposed the vulnerability of depending on the rating agencies of just one country.

Many market products ranked "AAA" or "AA" turned out to be seriously over-valued. The US rating agencies frequently lowered the credit rating of the sovereign debt of Greece and some other countries, which intensified the turbulence in global financial markets.

As the largest creditor country of the US, China too has suffered from the rating system dominated by the US corporations because it doesn't have the necessary ability to protect its financial and fiscal rights.

The lack of international rating rights has robbed China of the exchange rate of its own currency in the international market.

(China Daily 07/19/2010 page9)