In his presentation, Mr Campos defined currency misalignment as the exchange rate a country practices against what would be the ideal currency value for that country. This means countries sometimes over-inflate their currencies in order to secure competitive advantage. Mr Campos likened this practice to doping by professional athletes: “Currency manipulation is like an athlete who uses steroids to make [himself] faster or less resistant to fatigue so as to be better than his competitors.”

The sectors most affected by currency manipulation are those of trade, where countries with stronger currencies make more money when exporting their goods.

One of the reasons that currency manipulation is still prevalent is because the IMF and World Bank have failed to regulate how countries set currency values to they do not over-value their currencies. This, according to Mr Campos, is just one of the problems that needs to be addressed by policy-makers.