January 14, 2006	Saturday	Zilhaj 13, 1426

WASHINGTON, Jan 13: US Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Friday some countries’ movement of reserves out of dollar-denominated assets would have only a small effect on US markets and that investors would continue to find US investments attractive.

“I think some diversification at the margin is certainly to be expected. I don’t think it’ll have any major ripples on our domestic markets,” he said on Bloomberg TV.

“We have the deepest and most liquid markets in the world and that’ll continue to be the case,” he said.

Snow’s comments came as remarks by a Chinese government agency raised concerns the nation might trim dollar reserves.

China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), in a statement on its priorities in 2006, said it would “improve the operation and management of foreign exchange reserves and actively explore more effective ways to utilize reserve assets.”

However, a Chinese central bank official said on Tuesday that China is unlikely to sell current dollar assets in its foreign reserves to diversify holdings.—Reuters