Trump accuses China, Europe of currency manipulation, stimulus

US President Donald Trump yesterday accused China and Europe of deliberately weakening their currencies and stimulating their economies to gain competitive advantages over the United States. Trump’s latest Twitter outburst came as the Commerce Department reported that the US trade deficit surged to a five-month high in May, in part on record imports of automobiles -- goods on which Trump has threatened to impose steep duties.

The US Treasury, however, again reported in May that China was not manipulating its currency and departing European Central Bank Chief Mario Draghi last month rejected similar accusations from Trump. “China and Europe playing big currency manipulation game and pumping money into their system in order to compete with USA,” Trump said on Twitter.