BOAO, China: South African President Jacob Zuma Friday added his voice to criticism of the United States for pursuing loose policies that he said are putting the world economy at risk. Speaking at the Boao business forum on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, Zuma said the global financial crisis had exposed the inadequacies and shortcomings of the international monetary system, which has the dollar at its core. “In this regard, South Africa joins the call on major reserve currency-issuing economies to adopt responsible macroeconomic policies. They must take into account the ramifications of their monetary policies for both the domestic economy and the world economy,” he said. Zuma did not refer specifically to the dollar. The euro zone, Britain and Japan, the guardians of the other main reserve currencies, have also adopted ultra-stimulative monetary stances to help their economies recover from the global financial meltdown. But emerging markets have reserved particular ire for the United States and its central bank. They have repeatedly criticized the Federal Reserve's current $600 billion bond-buying program for depressing the dollar and sending unwanted waves of footloose capital into their economies in search of higher returns, pushing up exchange rates and asset prices. The dollar by some measures is trading at a record low against the currencies of America's trading partners.
