Geithner: U.S. Open to China Reserve Currency Proposal

Reuters NEW YORK -- Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Wednesday said he is "quite open" to China's suggestion of moving toward a currency system linked to the International Monetary Fund's Strategic Drawing Rights.

Zhou Xiaochuan, China's central bank governor, earlier this month said the world should consider the SDR, a basket of dollars, euros, sterling and yen, as a super-sovereign reserve currency.

Geithner, responding to a question, said he hadn't read Zhou's proposal but added, "as I understand it, it's a proposal designed to increase the use of the IMF's Special Drawing Rights. I am actually quite open to that suggestion."

However, he said it should be viewed as an "evolutionary building on the current architecture rather than moving us to a global monetary union."