Frustrated with the lack of meaningful exchange rate adjustment by China and some other Asian economies, the US Treasury has called on the International Monetary Fund to be more ambitious in its surveillance of exchange rates and warned that the “perception that the IMF is asleep at the wheel on its most fundamental responsibility – exchange rate surveillance – is very unhealthy both for the institution and the international monetary system”.

We agree – even if the criticism comes from an institution that has itself only recently awakened from a long slumber on these issues. But continued acrimony between the IMF and its largest shareholder would not be helpful – especially when the world economy faces critical challenges in reversing large and large and rapidly rising payments imbalances.