Washington
The US has removed India from a list of trading partner countries it monitors for foreign exchange of macroeconomics policies.
The development came as US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is visiting India.
The US Treasury Department told the Congress in a report submitted on Thursday that it has removed India, Italy, Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam from the “Monitoring List” because they met with only one of the three criteria needed for designation in two consecutive reports.
Countries that stayed on the list were China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan.
The three factors considered in putting a country on the monitoring list are the size of the bilateral trade surplus with the US, current account surplus, and persistent one-sided intervention in the foreign exchange market.
In addition, it also considers currency developments, exchange rate practices, foreign exchange reserve coverage, capital controls, and monetary policy.
The report did not specifically say what criteria India had met, but it mentions New Delhi’s performance in the related fields.
The report said that India’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $526.5 billion at the end of June, which is 16 per cent of the gross domestic product.
It said that India, like other countries covered in the report, continues to maintain “ample – or more than ample – foreign currency reserves based on standard adequacy benchmarks”.
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It also had a $48 billion trade surplus with the US, according to the report. The report further said that India ensured transparency in economic policy.
