Currency war is last thing world needs: ECB’s Coeure

DAVOS (Reuters) – Major economies should not target their exchange rates for competitive purposes and discussions among policymakers over currencies should be confined to official fora, European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure said on Friday.

“The last thing the world needs today is a currency war,” Coeure said a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “We live in a world of floating exchange rates, we live in a world where exchange rates are not and should not be targeted for competitive purposes.

“We see lots of volatility created recently by different statements and I think that’s just not helpful,” Coeure said. “Volatility is not helpful and if that would reach a point where it would create any unwarranted consequence for us, any unwarranted tightening for monetary policy, we would have to reassess.”

Coeure’s comments come after U.S. officials earlier this week made the case for a weak dollar, sending the greenback tumbling against the euro.

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