USD/CNY every day chart
The onshore yuan has fallen to its weakest since November final yr, with USD/CNY now rising to 7.29 as we speak. The surge larger within the foreign money pair has actually taken flight after the US election and much more in order Trump continues to threaten China with tariffs. And as that shrouds the outlook for subsequent yr, is China taking up an early response right here?
There was a line of pondering that Beijing may look to intentionally enable its foreign money to weaken in anticipation of the approaching commerce struggle. This may assist to reinforce China’s exports i.e. make it cheaper. And one can argue that it really works out each methods too. It might be futile for the PBOC to additionally burn by way of its reserves to attempt to restrict yuan depreciation if there may be mounting strain amid a stronger greenback as nicely.
With the Chinese language economic system additionally struggling, it might be prudent for Beijing to undertake some type of security/insurance coverage measures earlier than the Trump tariffs go into impact. That alongside additional easing in financial coverage ought to assist to offset a number of the influence from the tariffs not less than.
However in doing so, they threat hurting investor confidence in addition to consumption exercise i.e. home demand in these attempting instances. So, that will probably be one thing that policymakers want to contemplate when turning up this launch valve for the second.