Posts tagged 'Yuan'

What China really wants

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Dec 19 2012 10:09 | Comment |

China announced last week that its State Administration of Foreign Exchange would remove the $1bn limit for foreign sovereign wealth funds, central banks and monetary authorities buying Chinese assets through the Qualified Institutional Investor Programme (QFII).

David referenced that this might turn out to be pretty significant as reserve managers are currently desperate to diversify their holdings out of euro and dollar.

But there’s another important factor to consider too. China is not a benevolent agent which just does things for the sake of pleasing other people. If it chooses to act you can bet your bottom yuan that it’s because it suits its own interests to do so. Read more

Don’t be alarmed about China’s balance of payment deficit (yet)

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Sep 25 2012 09:51 | Comment |

China’s balance of payments deficit in the second quarter was its first such deficit since 1998, and it attracted a lot of attention. Together with other bits of data about currency flows, it heightened fears about whether there was some kind of capital flight out of the country, and what it would mean for domestic monetary policy just as the economy became slightly stretched — but still somewhat inflationary.

But it’s not so bad, Societe Generale’s Wei Yao says. Yao looked through the details of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange data from Q2 and reckons most of it can be explained by fairly normal changes associated with the authorities’ tentative steps towards renminbi internationalisation: namely, an increase in private foreign currency deposits (as opposed to the official reserves), and credits to foreigners on domestic banks’ balance sheets. Read more

The less-popular yuan

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Aug 15 2012 11:05 | Comment |

The reversal of currency flows in and out of China is continuing. The PBoC published data on Tuesday showing that the country’s banks were net sellers of yuan in July, selling Rmb3.8bn or $587m. As the WSJ’s Tom Orlik explains, this means that the banks’ foreign exchange purchases are lower than the monthly inflows from trade and investment, and it suggests some “hot money” is leaving — possibly in part because exporters and importers no longer want to settle in yuan.

Of course this is only a change in the direction of flows — and a small one when viewed in context. The chart below from Chinascope Financial demonstrates how, while the trend has been negative since September 2010 and particularly since September 2011, the banks’ overall forex position hasn’t changed that much in the past year: Read more

China’s two-way liquidity risk: shadow banking

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Aug 01 2012 12:30 | Comment |

Meanwhile, in the domestic banking scene… [See part 1 on capital outflows here.]

China’s financial system stability is increasingly intertwined with its shadow banking system — which is big, according to various tallies. Bank of America Merrill Lynch says it accounts for a quarter of all bank loans, with the biggest segments being wealth management products or WMPs (8 per cent) and trust companies (8.9 per cent). Fitch Ratings says that WMPs now account for about 16 per cent of all commercial bank deposits; KPMG says trust companies will overtake insurance to become the second-biggest component of the financial sector. Read more

China’s two-way liquidity risk: capital outflows

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Aug 01 2012 12:11 | Comment |

Izzy wrote in May how China’s Rmb exodus is a huge (and still little-explored) story for the world economy, and it’s one that won’t be going away as China recorded a net capital account deficit in Q2. We’re wondering now how this might collide with risks to domestic liquidity — specifically, whether a combination of Rmb exodus and local banking problems might affect the People’s Bank of China’s ability to maintain financial stability?

A very brief recap on the Chinese foreign reserves-domestic liquidity nexus: Read more

How things change, China FX manipulation edition

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Jul 26 2012 14:32 | Comment |

Mitt Romney, aspiring US president-to-be, has notoriously declared that if he ever takes office he will immediately name China a “currency manipulator”.

This, of course, is an ironic turn of events, given that China stopped being an outright currency manipulator a while ago. Read more

PBOC, not leaning against the wind anymore

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Jun 07 2012 14:19 | Comment |

First, in a sign that Chinese woes are definitely rising and that authorities are now sufficiently concerned, we bring you news that China cut rates on Thursday (via Bloomberg):

China cut interest rates for the first time since 2008, stepping up efforts to combat a deepening economic slowdown as Europe’s worsening debt crisis threatens global growth. The one-year deposit rate will drop to 3.25 percent from 3.5 percent effective tomorrow, the People’s Bank of China said on its website today. The one-year lending rate will fall to 6.31 percent from 6.56 percent. Banks can offer a 20 percent discount to the benchmark lending rate, the PBOC said, widening from a previous 10 percent. Read more

China is facing “the strongest outflow pressures for some time”

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| May 31 2012 13:07 | Comment |

All that gradual exchange flexibility, and yet the renminbi is only weakening:

 Read more

China’s ’1 per cent’ risk

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| May 23 2012 15:11 | Comment |

FT Alphaville has been focusing on signs that China may be suffering a “capital outflow” problem.

We also think global markets may be under appreciating the problem. Read more

A formula to end the dollar’s reserve currency domination

| May 22 2012 13:58 | Comment |

One reserve currency to rule them all.

But does it need to be this way? Or is it indeed possible to have two, or even several such currencies? Or to get straight to the heart of it: can the euro or Chinese yuan ever have the status of the US dollar? Read more

Why China’s RMB exodus IS the story

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| May 16 2012 12:20 | Comment |

There is a huge developing story in China’s currency, the renminbi.

After years of structural under-valuation, things are changing. Read more

RRR cuts ≠ credit easing. Keep saying it.

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| May 14 2012 09:38 | Comment |

Pretty much every China watcher, including us, has written in recent months about how reserve ratio requirement (RRR) cuts by the People’s Bank of China are not necessarily about credit easing. In fact these days, an RRR cut is not so much a move to make more credit available as it is to avoid reductions in liquidity.

Mark Dow, portfolio manager at Pharo Management, has a nice explanation of how this is, and where the RRR fits into the PBoC’s broader monetary policy. It starts with the policymakers’ credit expansion targets, which are believed to be about Rmb8tn to 8.5tn this year: Read more

That’s Governor Zhou to you

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Apr 17 2012 08:19 | Comment |

That’s pronounced a bit like “Joe”, but with a softer ‘g’ sound. According to Standard Chartered you need to start practising –  because People’s Bank of China governor Zhou Xiaochuan is “the world’s central banker”.

StanChart note that everyone already knows China has the world’s largest stock of M2 money. Read more

China’s FX policy and the elusive rebalancing

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Apr 16 2012 10:39 | Comment |

Does China’s decision to expand the allowed trading range for the yuan signal something significant for the country’s economy? Like, everything is roses?

We’re just asking because a Reuters analysis piece argues that this is the case: Read more

Hong Kong faces property decline and deposit outflows

Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company.

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| Jan 31 2012 21:25 | Comment |

Bloomberg reports on staling housing markets in Asia that have been hit by government efforts to prevent the real estate bubbles that Western economies have seen burst over the last few years. Property prices in Hong Kong have decreased by 6 per cent since June and Barclays analysts estimate a drop of 25 per cent could be seen by 2013. Would be Hong Kong homebuyers have to find large deposits, as well as stumping up extra transaction taxes and facing rising interest rates. The WSJ reports that banks in Hong Kong have also been seeing a decline in yuan deposits as increasing amounts of the currency is used to pay mainland suppliers. The outflow of deposits, as well as tighter lending conditions in China have motivated banks in Hong Kong to raise additional yuan funds in order to move further into the market. Flight to the to US dollar has also led to decreases in deposits. Read more

Shanghai aims to become centre of yuan trade

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Jan 31 2012 04:27 | Comment |

Shanghai plans to become a global center for yuan trading by 2015, open its markets wider to foreign investors and almost triple non-currency financial transactions, reports Bloomberg. The city will allow “significantly more” foreign participation in its financial markets, according to the plan jointly published by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Shanghai government on Monday. Shanghai aims to have about 1,000tn yuan ($158tn) in financial trading, excluding the currency transactions, by 2015, compared with 386.2tn yuan in 2010, the plan said. Read more

Obama promotes trade accord, notes slow appreciation of yuan

Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company.

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| Nov 14 2011 10:11 | Comment |

President Obama was in Hawaii this weekend to promote the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade accord that would be the the largest the US has entered into since the North American Free Trade agreement in 1994. The agreement includes nine countries in the Asia Pacific and may be expanded to include Japan and Canada, according to Bloomberg. The pact would seek to free up trade via traditional channels by addressing tariffs and allowing better market access, but it also aims to address any unfair advantages that state-owned enterprises may have when bidding for business. The agreement is meant to be signed within a year, though some participants in the negotiations think that it will prove too difficult to meet that timeline. At the same meeting in Hawaii, President Obama also remarked on the yuan’s appreciation being too slow, Bloomberg reports. Read more

Albert Edwards: Hold on for a hard landing in China

| Oct 20 2011 16:46 | Comment |

What are chances of a soft landing for the Chinese economy? Pretty slim if you ask über bear Albert Edwards.

The Société Générale strategist reckons “blind faith” in the competence of the Chinese authorities to guide the economy to a soft landing is misguided. He says: Read more

Currency bill passes US Senate

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Oct 12 2011 03:42 | Comment |

A bill that aims to punish Beijing for holding down its currency passed the Senate on Tuesday despite a warning from China that the legislation could plunge the global economy into a 1930s-like depression, the FT reports. The legislation passed the Democrat-led Senate with a comfortable 63-35 majority, with several Republican senators also supporting the bill. The vote could set up a tussle with the House of Representatives, whose Republican leaders have called the bill “dangerous” and so far have refused to schedule a vote on it. China stepped up its criticism of the bill, with foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said in a statement warning the move “seriously violates rules of the World Trade Organisation and obstructs China-US trade ties”, Xinhua reports.

  Read more

Bernanke criticises China over currency

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Oct 05 2011 05:05 | Comment |

The chairman of the US Federal Reserve has accused China of damaging prospects for a global economic recovery through its deliberate intervention in the currency market to hold down the value of the renminbi, the FT reports. Speaking just hours after the Chinese government sharply criticised a US congressional bill that would punish Beijing for alleged currency manipulation, Ben Bernanke told a congressional committee that an undervalued renminbi was preventing the rebalancing of global demand towards emerging market economies.  The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Monday to open debate on a bill, clearly aimed at China, that would impose tariffs on imports from countries with undervalued currencies. However on Tuesday, John Boehner, Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, counselled caution over the bill, saying it went beyond the remit of Congress. Read more

China criticises US currency bill

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Oct 04 2011 05:24 | Comment |

China’s foreign ministry said it “adamantly opposes” a bill being pushed by the Senate to allow the United States to impose duties on countries that undervalue their currencies, Reuters reports. In a statement posted on China’s official government website on Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu warned the United States not to “politicise” currency issues, and said the US was using currency as an excuse to adopt protectionist trade measures that violated global trading rules. ”By using the excuse of a so-called ‘currency imbalance’, this will escalate the exchange rate issue, adopting a protectionist measure that gravely violates WTO rules and seriously upsets Sino-US trade and economic relations,” he said. “China expresses its adamant opposition to this.” Read more

US Congress presses China on yuan

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Oct 03 2011 04:29 | Comment |

The US Congress is renewing a push to penalise China over its currency, the FT says, potentially forcing the White House to choose between angering its Democratic base and upsetting its delicately balanced relations with Beijing. The Senate is expected to vote on anti-China trade legislation on Monday, with the bill likely to pass with overwhelming bipartisan support, before being sent to the House of Representatives. The White House has given mixed signals on the subject. The bill would require the commerce department to use estimates of currency undervaluation when calculating so-called countervailing duties, imposed against imports deemed to be state-subsidised. Although the legislation has been drawn more tightly than previous such bills, which simply proposed levying an across-the-board tariff on Chinese imports, many trade lawyers think it would still be vulnerable to legal challenge at the World Trade Organisation. Read more

Yuan convertible in five years, says PBoC adviser

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Sep 26 2011 05:29 | Comment |

China’s yuan may become a fully convertible currency in five years, Li Daokui, an adviser to the People’s Bank of China, told a forum in Washington. Bloomberg reports Li said flexibility of the yuan will increase over coming years, and if reforms go on smoothly, “the renminbi will be fully convertible in five years”. However any appreciation would need to be gradual to avoid destabilising the U.S. economy, he said. Read more

China to back London as offshore renminbi centre

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Sep 08 2011 05:00 | Comment |

China is for the first time to give formal backing to moves by British banks to turn the City of London into an offshore trading centre for the renminbi, UK government officials have told the FT. As George Osborne, the chancellor, prepares to hold talks in London with Wang Qishan, the Chinese vice-premier, on Thursday British officials say a joint statement by both countries backing the growth of renminbi trading in London is set to be the centrepiece of their meeting. Meanwhile Chinese officials told EU business executives that the yuan will achieve “full convertibility” by 2015, Bloomberg reports, according to EU Chamber of Commerce in China president Davide Cucino. Mr Cucino declined to identify the officials, saying only that the information was conveyed at a meeting, and said the move to convertibility would be taken in steps. Read more

Yuan strengthens against dollar

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Aug 11 2011 04:27 | Comment |

The yuan strengthened beyond Rmb6.4 per dollar for the first time in 17 years, Bloomberg reports, supported by the Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep interest rates at a record low and signs China will use currency gains to help rein in inflation. The currency rose the most since November and 12-month non-deliverable forwards climbed to a three-month high after the central bank’s daily fixing had its biggest jump of 2011. The move reinforces the perception that Beijing is allowing the yuan to play a key role in containing high inflation, says the WSJ. Chinese officials said that inflation still needed to be closely monitored, China Daily reports. Read more

Stronger yuan won’t help US, says IMF

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Jul 21 2011 03:53 | Comment |

The IMF says a substantial appreciation of the Chinese renminbi would have little effect on trade and growth in the rest of the world even if accompanied by other economic liberalisation, the FT reports. In its annual report on the Chinese economy, the IMF said a 20 per cent trade-weighted appreciation in the renminbi – a level similar to that demanded by many American lawmakers – would increase growth in the US economy by between 0.05 and 0.07 percentage points. However the report says the currency is substantially undervalued – a view rejected by China’s representative to the IMF, says the WSJ. The IMF also signalled concern about the Chinese property market, Reuters says, although it expects inflation to ease in the next few months. Read more

Chinese repo rate hits three-year high

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Jun 23 2011 10:12 | Comment |

China’s most important gauge of short-term funding costs has risen to a three-year high, illustrating the severity of the government’s monetary tightening and the stress it is placing on businesses, the FT reports. The country’s seven-day government bond repurchase rate is notoriously volatile and is expected to fall after a month-end cash shortage eases. But in jumping to its highest level since late 2007, this barometer of interbank liquidity has raised fresh questions about the extent to which China’s fight against inflation could undermine economic growth. The seven-day repurchase, or repo, rate, hit 8.9 per cent on Wednesday, up more than 500 basis points from its average in May. Analysts said regional and municipal banks were being hit hard, because they are net borrowers in the interbank market. See the chart on FT Alphaville. Read more

CNH centre: coming to a City near you?

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| Jun 01 2011 19:14 | Comment |

We knew that China’s efforts to internationalise the RMB were moving along nicely, but thus far CNH deposits (yuan held offshore in Hong Kong) are still a relatively small part of China’s total deposit base.

But a new paper from RBS notes that as a percentage of Hong Kong deposits, they’re becoming a big deal indeed, and quickly: Read more

China’s yuan-child policy, relaxed

| Mar 08 2011 15:40 | Comment |

Relax, kids: a demographic tidbit from Citi’s emerging market round-up on Monday:

China will relax the one-child policy in five provinces this year and probably switch to the two-child policy within five years. According to the Chinese Liaowan Weekly, under the new policy, all couples with a one-child family can have two children. Read more

Offshore adventures in Chinese property

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Feb 17 2011 16:23 | Comment |

With bank credit being tightened across the country it seems clear that China’s property developers increasingly desire to fund via the bond markets.

Some, though, have been increasing bond sales more than others. Read more

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