BANKING & FINANCE
China denies plans to dump Fannie, Freddie
February 3, 2010
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu on Tuesday denied that China ever spoke with other countries about dumping US mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, state mediareported. The statement came in response to a reported comment in former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's memoirs regarding a proposed Russian plan to encourage China to dump Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The combined dumping of Russian and Chinese holdings in the two government-sponsored enterprises would have forced the US to step in and inject funds to maintain financial stability, an action that eventually took place some months later in the fall of 2008. "We have not seen Mr. Paulson's memoir," Ma said, and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's office denied that any such discussions ever occurred.
Posts
