Central banks don't need to issue digital currency: Greenspan

There is no point for central banks to issue a digital currency, said Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the board of governors of the US Federal Reserve System.

"The sovereign credit of a nation is what backs up currencies of individual countries and central banks. No other organization has that calling. The fundamental credit of the United States is far in excess of anything that Facebook can imagine," said Greenspan when he was taking questions from the audience of the Caijing Magazine Annual Conference 2020 on Tuesday.

He said how one handles the issue of digital money is actually a political issue, not an economic issue.

When talking about China-US trade frictions during a video speech, Greenspan said the trade war is essentially being driven by the United States, not China, and the winner of a tariff war is actually a loser that is losing less than the other.

"We ought to recognize that tariffs are basically a tax. There are seeming winners and losers in a trade war, but not really, because tariff is an access tax on your own producers. This gets down to the point where anybody increases tariffs, this taxing is on people … I hope we all come to our senses and realize that tariff wars are a loss for everybody," he said.