Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin landed in Buenos Aires for a summit on Friday with the risk of a currency war in the air. He left two days later with the world’s top finance chiefs feeling much more at ease.
Mnuchin over roughly 48 hours tamped down concern of any shift in currency policy, hammering home in a press conference early Saturday that America’s longstanding commitment to a strong greenback remains intact. He also said the U.S. isn’t trying to intervene in the dollar market.
His comments at the Group of 20 nations summit followed tweets on Friday from President Donald Trump, who accused China and the euro area of manipulating their currencies while complaining that a rising dollar is hurting the U.S. His comments caused the greenback on Friday to weaken the most in four months as investors feared Trump was embarking on a new era of jawboning the currency to boost exports.
