WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve policy isn’t to blame for the steep inflation and other woes affecting developing nations, the central bank’s chairman, Ben Bernanke, said Friday as he tried to rebut a rising chorus of criticism of the Fed’s easy-money policies from abroad.

Officials in China, Brazil and other developing nations have argued that the Fed is stoking a new round of investment bubbles and global inflation with its policy of ultra-low interest rates in the United States.

Bernanke deflected those arguments and — while acknowledging that the United States needs to make policy changes of its own — again made the case that countries such as China that deliberately depress the value of their currencies are making the world economy more prone to financial crises.

The remarks came at a central banking conference in Paris before a meeting of the Group of 20. Bernanke made clear the dangers that can emerge when vast sums of money gush into a nation, as is the case now in many emerging markets.

The U.S. financial crisis from 2007 to 2009, Bernanke argued, was partly the result of factors including loose oversight and bad lending practices that enabled money from abroad to flow into risky investments, such as mortgage-backed securities.

“Countries with excessive and unsustainable trade surpluses will need to allow their exchange rates to better reflect market fundamentals” and work at boosting domestic demand rather than relying on exports to feed their economies, Bernanke said.

When a nation’s currency is devalued, its lower-cost exports lure foreign interest, bringing greater amounts of cash into the economy. That can pose risks, depending on how that money is invested.

Although he did not mention China by name, Bernanke made clear that he thinks it needs to let the value of its currency rise on global markets to help balance the flow of capital and trade among nations and create a more stable global economy.

“At the same time, countries with large, persistent trade deficits must find ways to increase national saving, including putting fiscal policies on a more sustainable trajectory,” he said, a clear reference to the U.S.