Consider the countries Japan, South Korea, and China. Each country at some point in the past deliberately manipulated its currency value to be low, which helped its export-led growth and subsequently it became much wealthier. deliberately manipulated its currency value to be high, which helped its export-led growth and subsequently it became much wealthier. found that currency manipulation could not effect economic growth. deliberately manipulated its currency value to be low, which had a similar effect as an import tax, so the currency manipulation policy led to lower economic growth until the policy was removed. allowed its currency value to float freely against other currency values and the subsequent appreciation of their currency supported their export-led growth.