BRUSSELS, March 15: US authorities are perhaps frustrated like their European counterparts at the slump of the US dollar, Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos said, straying from an official European Union line on foreign exchange.

“Maybe the Americans get frustrated as well,” Bos told reporters.

He had been asked whether European officials were growing impatient with the dollar’s fall to record lows against the euro, despite repeated statements from Washington that a strong dollar was in the US interest.

Bos then repeated a phrase used by fellow EU finance ministers at their recent meetings.

“Really I should say here the same as everybody says and that is we have noted with great interest that the American authorities themselves state over and over again that a strong currency is in the interest of the American economy and it certainly is,” he said.

“I think that if an American minister says that a strong currency is in the interests of the American economy and then he sees that the American currency is not strong, then I guess that he is frustrated, that it what I wanted to say,” Bos said.

EU leaders at a summit on Friday expressed their concern about excessive currency volatility, also repeating words used by their finance ministers, after the euro hit a new record high against the dollar last week above $1.56.

Bos was speaking at the Brussels Forum.—Reuters