The US dollar will remain the world’s reserve currency for a while and it is probable that the world economy will start growing next year, with China, Brazil and India among the first to bounce back, billionaire investor and currencies expert George Soros told CNBC.
“I think the dollar is the dominant currency for a while to come. But in the long run I think it would be important that the US should be subject to the same discipline as the rest of the world,” Soros said in an interview after the G20 summit in London.
He also said his recent comments about Britain and the need for funds from the International Monetary Fund had been misreported. UK newspapers reported that Soros had said it was likely that the UK would go to the IMF to fund its budget deficit.
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“That was a misleading headline given to an interview where I said it’s most unlikely that Britain would need to go to the IMF,” Soros said, adding that he was not shorting the pound.
“However the fact that it created such an outcry shows what a stigma there is attached to having to go to the IMF,” he said.
Banks’ toxic assets will continue to weigh on the world economy and changing accounting rules to allow banks more flexibility in marking to market distressed assets, adopted Thursday in the US, will not help banks as much as recapitalizing them, according to Soros.
