G20峰会给市场打气：别担心太多

SHANGHAI — Through the winter, world financial markets have tumbled and churned with a succession of worries. The Chinese economy seemed to be faltering¹. Commodity exporters like Russia and Brazil suffered sharp slowdowns. And with oil prices falling, banks that have lent heavily to energy companies could be hurt.

上海——整个冬天，全球金融市场因为一连串的担忧而动荡不安。中国经济似乎正在崩溃。俄罗斯和巴西等大宗商品出口国大幅放缓。此外，随着油价下跌，向能源企业大举放贷的银行可能会遭受重创。

On Saturday evening, finance ministers from 20 of the world’s largest economies wrapped up a day and a half of meetings with a rough consensus²: The markets worry too much.

周六晚上，来自世界最大的20个经济体的财长结束了一天半的会议，并大致达成共识：市场担心得太多了。

The ministers turned aside suggestions that they embark³ on any radical⁴ changes in policy, like realigning the exchange rates of major currencies. They endorsed⁵ instead a stepped-up combination of monetary⁶ policies, government spending and structural⁷ changes, altering the wording of Saturday night’s communiqué from communiqués last year to put somewhat greater emphasis on these policies.

各国财长拒绝了彻底改变政策，如调整主要货币之间的汇率的建议。他们支持加大力度，实行货币政策、政府开支和结构性改革的政策组合。周六晚上的会议公报在去年公报的基础上调整了措辞，多少增加了对这些政策的重视。

The ministers tried hard to persuade investors⁸ around the world that they were missing basic strengths in the global economy.

财长们努力想让全世界的投资者相信，他们忽视了全球经济的基本优势。

“The magnitude of the recent market volatility⁹ has not reflected the underlying¹⁰ fundamentals of the global economy,” said Lou Jiwei, the finance minister of China, the country that holds the group’s presidency¹¹ this year.

“近期的市场波动程度并未反映全球经济基本面持续复苏的状况，”中国财政部长楼继伟说。中国今年是二十国集团（Group of 20，简称G20）的主席国。

Led by China, finance ministers from the Group of 20 agreed on Saturday to inform one another of all major changes in currency policies to avoid surprises that could shake up global financial markets.

周六，在中国的带领下，G20的财长同意相互通知各自在货币政策上的所有重大调整，以避免令外界措手不及，进而震动全球金融市场。

The agreement to share information came in addition to renewing a previous commitment by large economies not to devalue their currencies to obtain a competitive advantage for their exporters. Devaluations make exporters’ goods less expensive in foreign markets.

除就共享信息达成一致外，会议还重申了这些经济大国此前做出的一项承诺，即不会为了促进本国出口企业的竞争优势，而竞相贬值货币。

The information sharing agreement was prompted by actions in recent months by China and Japan. China unexpectedly made small devaluations in its currency in early August and in late December, both times leading to drops in world stock markets. Japan has embraced negative interest rates and pushed hard to expand its money supply, moves that have made it less attractive to hold yen¹².

促使达成信息共享协议的，是中日两国近几个月的几次行动。8月初和12月末，中国出人意料地让人民币小幅贬值，两次都引发了全球股市的下跌。日本则实行负利率，并大力推动增加货币供应。这两项举动降低了持有日元的吸引力。

China has taken steps in the last several days to become more open about its financial policies, including holding a rare news conference on Friday morning by Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, who sought to reassure¹³ financial markets that China has plans to handle a deceleration in economic growth.

过去几天，中国采取了多项措施，对其财政政策的态度变得更加开放，其中包括中国人民银行行长周小川周五上午举行了一场罕见的新闻发布会。周小川试图向金融市场保证，中国有应对经济增长放缓的方案。

Jacob J. Lew, Treasury¹⁴ secretary in the United States, and other finance ministers said that they accepted China’s assurances that its devaluations had been part of a decision to let markets play a greater role in deciding the value of the renminbi, and not an effort to gain an advantage in trade. “I think the communication that China has done these past days has helped not just ourselves but all observers to understand that more clearly, and I think that’s very positive,” Mr. Lew said.

美国财长雅各布·J·卢(Jacob J. Lew)和其他一些财长表示，他们接受中国的说法，即人民币贬值不是为了获得贸易优势，而是让市场力量在人民币汇率的形成中发挥更大作用的决策的一部分。“我认为，中国过去几天提供的信息不仅有助于我们自己，而且有助于所有观察人士对此有更清晰的了解，我觉得这是非常积极的，”卢说。

Masatsugu Asakawa, Japan’s vice¹⁵ minister of finance for international affairs, said there had been strong agreement that countries should not devalue currencies to help the competitiveness of their exports. While expansionary monetary policies like Japan’s may have spillover effects on currencies, they are not problematic as long as the policies are aimed mainly at supporting the domestic economy, not currency depreciation¹⁶, he said.

日本财务省财务官浅川雅嗣(Masatsugu Asakawa)称，在不为帮助提升出口商品的竞争力而贬值这一点上，各国有牢固的共识。他说，尽管像日本那样的扩张性货币政策可能会对汇率产生溢出效应，但只要相关政策的主要目的是支持国内经济，而非货币贬值，就没有问题。

Many of the worries this winter have involved whether economic growth in China may be slowing more than official statistics indicate. Giving a possible glimpse into the Chinese government’s priorities in the budget to be released next Saturday, Mr. Lou said China would pursue a long list of policies aimed at helping¹⁷ various sectors¹⁸ of the Chinese economy become more efficient.

过去这个冬天的很多担忧都涉及中国经济增长放缓的程度，是否比官方统计数据更严重。楼继伟称，中国将采取许多政策，力图帮助中国经济的各个领域提高效率，这或许能显示出，将于下周六公布的预算里，中国政府的政策重点。

One policy already carried out, he said, had shortened the lengthy¹⁹ process for obtaining some kinds of government approvals for businesses to a few days. “Through deregulation, we can invigorate entrepreneurship and innovation,” he said.

楼继伟称，其中一项已经实施的政策，将企业获得某些政府审批的漫长过程，缩短到了几天。他说，通过“简政放权、放松管制”，“极大地鼓励了创业和创新”。

The International Monetary Fund and some commercial banks had called for a sense of urgency in the face of a series of challenges, like negative interest rates that may be eroding²⁰ the effectiveness of monetary policy. But finance ministers from the largest countries pushed back, saying they did not perceive a crisis and so a crisis response was unnecessary.

面对一系列挑战，如可能会削弱货币政策的有效性的负利率，国际货币基金组织(International Monetary Fund)和一些商业银行呼吁要有紧迫感。但经济大国的财长们持反对意见，称他们并未感到存在危机，因此不必采取危机应对措施。

“Some market participants wanted a big plan to boost the economy,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister, who is also the chairman of the European Union’s council of 28 finance ministers. “But I don’t feel there is a need for a big plan. We’re not in a crisis mode.”

“一些市场主体希望制定一项提振经济的庞大方案，”荷兰财长耶霍恩·戴塞尔布卢姆(Jeroen Dijsselbloem)说。“但我觉得不需要制定大方案。我们并未处于危机状态。”戴塞尔布卢姆还在欧盟28个成员国的财长组成的一个机构里担任主席。