China should keep the yuan stable, in part because that is beneficial for a global economic recovery, a Commerce Ministry spokesman said on Monday.

The yuan's exchange rate has little to do with its trade imbalance, spokesman Yao Jian told a news conference.

He added that it was unfair to urge just one country to increase the value of its currency, as other currencies fall in value.

Yao was speaking shortly after International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said a stronger yuan is part of the reforms that Beijing needs to implement to increase domestic consumption and help ease global imbalances.

(Reporting by Aileen Wang and Jason Subler; Editing by Ken Wills)

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