Currency basket can replace US dollar, says UN advisor

LONDON: A UN advisor has suggested that a basket of currencies - including a regional currency in Asia - could replace the US dollar in shaping the global financial system.

"I think China should play a cooperative role with Japan, South Korea and other Asian countries to introduce a regional currency while the world is trying to replace the old reserve currency system," Jeffrey Sachs, special advisor to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, told China Daily on Wednesday. Sachs is also professor of Columbia University.

He said China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan has come up with an innovative idea to introduce a global currency in an effort to redefine the rigid global financial regime, which has undergone no major change since World War II.