safe

Yuan appreciation: record-breaking by degrees

September 15, 2010 9:52 am by Emma Saunders

Whether prompted by inflation or politics, the yuan continues to strengthen, today at its highest level against the dollar since 1993. Seen in context, the strengthening is small – it’s the little squiggle on the far right of the chart, right. Compared to the currency’s ‘real’ value – according to the US – of USD1:RMB4-5, the shift is hard to spot.

But we have now seen five days of appreciation in a row, and the judicious appreciation of the Chinese currency makes good headlines, breaking records along the way. As Alan points out, it is likely to be just enough to deflect criticism at the G20. The chart below shows the daily midpoint set by Safe, the forex regulator, against the tolerance band of the original peg. Read more

Tags: Asia, china, currency, forex, renminbi, RMB, safe, yuan
Posted in People's Bank of China | Permalink

Parsing the PBoC

July 11, 2010 10:11 am by Emma Saunders

Is the People’s Bank of China planning to further liberate the yuan? The central bank has cut the commitment to “keep the yuan’s exchange rate basically stable” from its latest currency communique. The rest of the message repeated the existing policy, i.e. to improve the currency’s exchange rate mechanism, and adjust its value with reference to a basket of foreign currencies.

Although the currency’s peg was loosened on June 19, the daily midpoint set by Safe has barely strayed out of the tolerance levels of the original peg; the currency need only have been 0.3 per cent weaker to meet the original, pegged criteria. Against the US claims of the yuan’s ‘true value’, the currency’s ‘strengthening’ is barely discernible. Read more

Tags: Asia, china, currency, pboc, People's Bank of China, renminbi, RMB, safe, yuan
Posted in People's Bank of China | Permalink

That yuan unpegging in full, part II

July 1, 2010 4:21 pm by Emma Saunders

Who needs context? “Yuan ends near post-revaluation high,” runs one of many excitable headlines.

Since the great unpegging, the yuan hit a ‘peak’ of 6.7801 on Wednesday. That’s a peak-to-trough movement of 0.69 per cent in the past nine days. For comparison, the dollar-sterling exchange rate peak-to-trough movement has been four times that, at 2.9 per cent. Read more