Tagged: Yuan peg
U.S. to delay decision in China currency dispute
Reuters | Oct 15, 2010 | 10:09pm IST
The Obama administration plans to delay a decision on whether to label China a currency manipulator, a move long demanded by many U.S. lawmakers but also a potentially big wrench in an important relationship. A Senate aide told Reuters the Treasury Department would hold off releasing its semi-annual report on the currency practices of U.S. trading partners.
It was not immediately clear how long the delay would be. Industry sources had said they expected the report to be unveiled at 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Friday. The Senate aide, speaking on condition he not be named, said he was "hearing they will delay its release."
A desire to look tough on "unfair" trade practices before the U.S. congressional election on Nov. 2, in which Democrats are battling to keep control of Congress, could tempt President Barack Obama to cite China for the first time in 16 years.
But concern about angering the largest holder of U.S. government debt and the need for Chinese support on a host of international issues could mean continuing diplomatic efforts that have resulted in a nearly 2.5 percent rise in the value of China’s yuan against the dollar in recent months. It is a fine line and many observers think Obama will opt to play it safe with Beijing and give it another pass.
IMF split in China yuan exchange rate debate
Reuters | Thu Jul 29, 2010 | 2:36am IST
The IMF has softened its criticism of China’s currency regime in recognition of Beijing’s efforts to free up its exchange rate but the move showed a split among the Fund’s member countries. A summary of an annual review of China’s policies described the yuan as "undervalued," a change from "substantially undervalued," which was used by International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn as recently as June. The yuan has been a flashpoint in relations between China and old-line industrial powers, some of whom have complained that an undervalued yuan undercuts their exports. Without elaborating, an IMF board statement on Wednesday said several countries on the 24-member executive board believed the Chinese currency was undervalued. But others said a structural reduction in the balance of payments surplus was already unfolding thanks to steps taken to boost consumption, disagreeing with an assessment by IMF staff that the yuan was "substantially undervalued." "This does reflect a softening in the board’s position about the degree of adjustment that is needed in the Chinese exchange rate regime," said Eswar Prasad, a senior fellow at Washington’s Brookings Institution and a former IMF official.
IMF economists calculated the yuan was undervalued somewhere between 5 and 27 percent, depending on methodologies used, Prasad said. A diplomat in Beijing confirmed the range. Beijing dropped the yuan’s 23-month-old peg to the dollar and reverted to a managed float on June 19, since which time it has inched up 0.7 percent against the dollar. Prasad said it was premature for some countries to argue China had made a significant move on its currency regime and was boosting local demand to help rebalance the world economy. Despite the choice of language used by the IMF’s board, the Fund’s mission chief to China, Nigel Chalk, said Fund staff economists found the renminbi remained "substantially below the level that is consistent with medium-term fundamentals." That view was based on staff forecasts that China’s current account surplus, which has fallen to around 4 percent of gross domestic product, will rise to about 8 percent in five years as the world economy recovers and net exports pick up again. Beijing disagreed, arguing the surplus will stay at the new, lower level, Chalk told reporters on a conference call. Among the constraints in assessing China’s economy was the lack of a medium-term policy framework, he said.
Watch out: yuan may fall as volatility picks up
Reuters | Sat Jul 3, 2010 | 10:32pm IST
Now that China is staying true to its word and letting the yuan trade a bit more freely, analysts and investors outside the mainland may not be prepared for one potential outcome: a yuan drop. China is showing a determination to let the yuan be more volatile against the dollar within its daily 0.5 percent trading band and go with the market flow, contrary to some expectations for another steady rise as happened between 2005 and 2008. That means there are no guarantees that the yuan will appreciate against the dollar over time, and Beijing is set to stick firmly to its position on yuan flexibility no matter how much it disappoints critics — most prominently U.S. lawmakers. The fundamentals arguing for substantial yuan appreciation have changed since the financial crisis: China is running smaller trade surpluses, and economists see the potential for the shrinking current account surpluses to turn into deficits in coming years. As a result, the basis for steady but slow yuan appreciation versus the dollar is not as strong as five years ago — one reason why Beijing keeps emphasising flexibility in its pushing forward the reform of its currency system.
"China’s new yuan policy lays emphasis on a quick response to changes in economic and market conditions, with no preset levels for yuan appreciation either in the short term or long term," said Chen Lu, chief economist at Haitong Securities in Shanghai. The People’s Bank of China has matched its words with deeds by allowing greater yuan volatility since the June 19 announcement and subsequent clarification that flexibility still means that yuan moves must be gradual and controllable. The yuan has moved in an average daily range of more than 100 pips since its depegging, far above the 50 pips that dealers say would allow banks to engage in proprietary trading intraday. This compared with a daily movement of only a few pips during the two years when the currency was pegged to the dollar. Banks are just starting to do more day-to-day speculation, adding to liquidity in the local spot market. Before the depegging, the limited daily swings meant all trading was almost a pure reflection of supply and demand, with the PBOC keeping the market in check. Realised volatility in dollar/yuan has jumped as spot has started swinging more sharply within the daily trading band on the official CFETS platform.
Chinese President Hu Jintao resists Obama calls on yuan
BBC NEWS | 2010/04/13 | 10:21:23 GMT
Chinese President Hu Jintao has resisted pressure from President Obama to raise the value of the Chinese yuan. He told Mr Obama that it would "neither balance Sino-US trade nor solve the [US] unemployment problem", Chinese official news agency Xinhua reported. However, Mr Hu indicated that the Chinese were preparing to change their policy on the yuan in their own time. The Chinese and US presidents were meeting at the sidelines of a 47-nation nuclear summit in Washington DC. According to Xinhua, Mr Hu said that detailed measures for reform should be considered in the context of the world’s economic situation, as well as China’s. China News Service reported that Hu said China "is firmly committed to the direction of reforming the… exchange rate regime. This is based on the needs of China’s own economic development." However, he added that "outside pressures will not advance [reform]".
For his part, Mr Obama called on his counterpart to switch to a more "market oriented" exchange rate, according to senior White House official Jeff Bader. China has pegged its currency to the dollar since 2008 in response to market volatility during and after the financial crisis. Market reaction to the comments was fairly muted, but seemed to interpret Mr Hu’s comments as reducing the immediate prospects of any rise in the yuan’s value. Other Asian currencies such as the Malaysian ringgit and Korean won, lost between 0.5% to 1% against the dollar in early trading, ending strong rallies recorded during the past two months. Markets had previously been speculating that if the yuan were allowed to appreciate, this would lead to similar rises in the currencies of other Asian countries that compete with China for exports to the US and Europe.
China Trade Tensions With U.S. Have Been ‘Amplified,’ Kirk Says
Bloomberg | April 2, 2010 | 18:00 EDT
China’s trade disputes with the US have been “amplified” and in some cases are no worse than those with other countries, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said ahead of a visit to Washington this month by President Hu Jintao. Kirk declined to single out China as a protectionist nation in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt” airing this weekend. The US and China, with $409 billion in annual trade, have a complex relationship that holds “great promise,” Kirk said. “Our challenges with China I think get amplified because there’s so much attention focused on China,” Kirk said. “But we have challenges throughout Asia.”
President Barack Obama would like to complete at least one of three pending trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama this year, Kirk said. While he declined to say which accord would come first, Kirk said the administration is making “good progress” on resolving labor and tax issues with Panama. Bipartisan cooperation will be required on trade issues to keep the US competitive with other countries that are lowering tariffs, Kirk said. He has met with representatives of labor unions and congressional Democrats over the past 14 months to try to defuse the emotions surrounding trade, Kirk said.
Tire Tariffs
“We’re not going to be able to move forward if we have a poisoned political environment in Washington in which every issue that comes up becomes the next health care,” Kirk said. “If we do it right, we ought to be able to thread the needle in a way that we can answers some of their criticisms honestly but still
ANALYSIS – US currency push on China no slam dunk
Reuters | Thu Apr 1, 2010 | 9:24am IST
China’s currency is clearly undervalued, but pressure on Beijing to make its currency rise in value won’t trim the US trade deficit with China or reduce the jobless rate, say American economists. Political pressure is building on the Obama administration to name China a "currency manipulator" in a mid-April report, and lawmakers are threatening to slap tariffs on Chinese goods to offset any export subsidy a cheap currency gives China. However, many trade economists and businessmen say that at best, a heavy-handed US approach on currency will fail. At worst, it could backfire, sparking a US-China trade war. Instead, Washington should address the currency and other factors behind global financial imbalances in a multilateral setting. Bilaterally, the Americans should focus on Chinese trade barriers that suppress sales to China and may violate World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, they say.
"The currency is undervalued, period. It’s also a structural distortion because the world’s second-largest economy shouldn’t be pegging to the largest economy," said Derek Scissors of the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Economists say China’s currency is pegged to the dollar at a rate that is between 15 and 40 percent lower than the level markets would set if the yuan were freely traded. Slamming the Chinese over currency is politically appealing in an election year in which US unemployment is near 10 percent and China’s trade surplus is expanding again.
JOBS AND TRADE
Economically, however, "this is a dead end," warned Scissors. "If you’re looking to create jobs, the currency change won’t do it. The Chinese have reserved large parts of their market for the state — by rules, by subsidies, by everything you can imagine — and that’s the big cap on US exports, not the
US delays China yuan ruling ahead of Hu visit
Reuters | Sun Apr 4, 2010 | 7:58am IST
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Saturday he was delaying an April 15 report on whether China manipulates its currency but pledged to press for a more flexible Chinese currency policy. The decision follows Thursday’s announcement in Beijing that Chinese President Hu Jintao will attend a nuclear security summit meeting in Washington April 12-13 and seems to be a move to keep tensions over currency in check. The Obama administration seeks broad global support for measures to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, making it an inconvenient time to risk inflaming the dispute over China’s currency policy. Analysts said it would have been a slap in the face to Beijing if Washington had labelled China a currency manipulator days after Hu’s visit.
Geithner said he will use upcoming meetings of the Group of 20 and a US-China economic summit in Beijing in May to try to get China to budge. "I believe these meetings are the best avenue for advancing US interests at this time," Geithner said in a statement issued at midday on the Easter holiday weekend. Treasury gave no indication when it will actually release the report. The US Business and Industry Council, a trade group, said the administration apparently would delay the release of the report until after the G20 summit meeting in June. As a result, "for three more months, more American factories will close or cut back production and more of their employees will lose their jobs" because unilateral US tariffs are needed to combat "predatory trade practices."
China May Let Yuan Strengthen Next Month, BlueGold’s Jen Says
Bloomberg | March 30, 2010 | 06:57 EDT
China may refloat its currency next month, helping to counter criticism it’s giving its exporters an unfair advantage, said Stephen Jen of BlueGold Capital Management LLP. “I maintain the view that it is likely that China refloats the RMB in April,” before a meeting of US and Chinese officials in Beijing, Jen, a managing director at BlueGold in London, wrote in a report to clients today.
Officials in Beijing have resisted allowing gains in the yuan, having controlled its value since July 2008 after it strengthened 21 percent against the dollar in the previous three years. The status quo has drawn criticism from European and US policy makers, who say keeping the currency undervalued has given China’s exporters an edge and is inflating asset bubbles. Allowing the yuan to gain “should help diffuse much of the risks associated with trade protectionism and allow China to resume building the institutional framework necessary to conduct monetary policies independent from those of the Fed,” said Jen, a former chief currency strategist at Morgan Stanley.
INTERVIEW – India unlikely to pressure China on Yuan
Reuters | Thu Mar 18, 2010 | 8:30pm IST
India is unlikely to join other states in putting pressure on China to revalue its Yuan currency, Kaushik Basu, chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, told Reuters on Thursday. The Chinese currency’s fixed peg has stoked tensions between Beijing and Washington, with the United States piling pressure on China to let the Yuan climb. Basu said a rate hike by India’s central bank was likely. He said headline inflation may cross into double digits or be around a high single-digit number soon but start easing from May or June. Inflation climbed to 9.89 percent in February.
Several lawmakers in the United States have demanded sanctions against China unless the Asian giant abandons its fixed currency peg, which has helped it run up a huge trade surplus. However, China has stood firm on its position of not letting the Yuan appreciate. Countries in the region like Japan and India have been cautious in commenting on the issue. “I really don’t see India joining in and say look let us work with you (the U.S.) and pressure China on changing its exchange rate policy,” Basu told Reuters in an interview. He said it was unlikely that India would take up the issue in an international forum like the G20. Continue reading
China’s exports see sharp increase
Wednesday, 10 March 2010 | 08:36 GMT
China’s exports jumped by 46% in February compared with a year ago, raising hopes of a strong recovery in global trade. The increase was higher than analysts’ expectations of a rise of between 35% and 40%. It is likely to increase pressure on the Chinese government to raise the value of the Yuan, which the US in particular complains is undervalued. China’s imports also rose strongly, increasing by 44.7% last month. The big growth in imports was helped by the government’s economic stimulus spending. The rise in imports reduced China’s trade surplus to a one-year low of $7.6bn (£5bn) for February.
Yuan to rise?
Beijing had kept the Yuan at the same level against the US dollar for 18 months, to help its exporters. This has angered the US, which says the Chinese government keeps the Yuan unfairly undervalued, and Washington continues to call on Beijing to allow the currency to float freely to reflect its true market value. "The recovery seems to have gained legs and this will give China’s government more confidence to start revaluing the Yuan," said Ren Xianfang, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Beijing. However, China’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said at the weekend that the government was "very cautious" about easing exchange rate controls because the global economic outlook was still uncertain.
China to seek bigger share of world exports
Reuters | BEIJING | Mon Dec 28, 2009 | 4:02pm IST
Beijing will not relax its efforts to sell Chinese products overseas in 2010 and seek a bigger share in the global market, China’s vice trade minister said on Sunday. China, which may have replaced Germany to be the world’s largest exporter in 2009, is a “big trading nation” but not yet, a “powerful trading nation,” vice commerce Minister Zhong Shan said. “China’s exports in 2010 will grow, and there’s no doubt about that,” Zhong said, declining to provide detailed forecasts. China’s exports were hit hard by the global financial turmoil, falling 18.8 percent in the first 11 months from a year earlier. But the market share for Chinese products has increased in 2009 as sales from other countries have fallen even more deeply, Zhong told a forum at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.
Other countries have blamed China’s unofficial policy of repegging the Yuan to the dollar since the summer of 2008 for making its products artificially competitive. China will feel pressure on its Yuan policy but will maintain “basic stability” Zhong said, in a reiteration of long-standing government policy. He said export growth is vital for China to drive economic growth and create jobs Continue reading
China won’t be pressured over Yuan peg – Wen
Reuters | BEIJING | Sun Dec 27, 2009 | 4:57pm IST
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday struck a defiant note about the country’s controversial exchange rate policy, saying the government would not give into foreign demands to let the Yuan rise. Wen said the currency was facing growing pressure to appreciate, but insisted that China was committed to keeping it stable, having virtually pegged it to the dollar since the global financial crisis worsened in the middle of last year. “We will not yield to any pressure of any form forcing us to appreciate. As I have told my foreign friends, on one hand, you are asking for the Yuan to appreciate, and on the other hand, you are taking all kinds of protectionist measures,” he said. “The true purpose (of these calls) is to contain China’s development,” he added in an interview with the official Xinhua news agency.
The Yuan has fallen against the currencies of most of its trading partners this year because it has been fixed to a weakening dollar, while China’s economy has bounced back strongly. U.S. senators have asked for an investigation into whether current Yuan policy represents a form of subsidy that would justify tariffs on Chinese imports. Wen also repeated an oft-made declaration that the stable Yuan had contributed to the global economic recovery. Continue reading
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