China on Monday expressed concern at the decline in the dollar, joining a growing chorus of global policymakers alarmed by the weakness in the world’s main reserve currency. Premier Wen Jiabao told a business audience in Singapore it was becoming difficult to manage China’s $1,430bn foreign exchange reserves, saying that their value was under unprecedented pressure. ‘We have never been experiencing such big pressure,’ Mr Wen said, according to Reuters. ‘We are worried about how to preserve the value of our reserves.’ China keeps the currency composition of its reserves a state secret, but some analysts believe that more than two-thirds are probably still held in dollars. Mr Wen’s comments came as top international economic officials spoke out in support of a strong dollar in the aftermath of the weekend’s Group of 20 summit in South Africa and Opec meeting in Riyadh. Hank Paulson, US Treasury secretary, told reporters in Ghana: ‘A strong dollar is in our nation’s interest.’ He said the US economy had its ‘ups and downs’ but he believed that ‘our long-term economic strength will be reflected in currency ­markets’. Mr Paulson and other top US officials, including President George […]