A Brookings Institution Press and Asian Development Bank Institute publication Meet the next global currency: the Chinese renminbi, or the "redback." Following the global financial crisis of 2008, China's major monetary policy objective is the internationalization of the renminbi, that is, to create an inter-national role for its currency akin to the international role currently played by the U.S. dollar. Renminbi internationalization is a hot topic, for good reason. It is, essentially, a window onto the Chinese government's aspirations and the larger process of economic and financial transformation. Making the renminbi a global currency requires rebalancing the Chinese economy, developing the country's financial markets and opening them to the rest of the world, and moving to a more flexible exchange rate. In other words, the internationalization of the renminbi is a monetary and financial issue with much broader supra-monetary and financial implications. This book offers a new perspective on the larger issues of economic, financial, and institutional change in what will eventually be the world's largest economy.

China’s exchange rate regime has undergone gradual reform since the move away from a fixed exchange rate in 2005. The renminbi has become more flexible over time but is still carefully managed, and depth and liquidity in the onshore FX market is relatively low compared to other countries with de jure floating currencies. Allowing a greater role for market forces within the existing regime, and greater two-way flexibility of the exchange rate, are important steps to build on the progress already made. This should be complemented by further steps to develop the FX market, improve FX risk management, and modernize the monetary policy framework.

Since late 2002 there have been many disputes and discussions around the world on whether or not the Chinese yuan (CNY), or renminbi (RMB), should be revalued. Based on various arguments and discussions, the CNY has been expected to be revalued worldwide, as evidenced by the significant premiums for the CNY non-deliverable forwards in the offshore marketplace. With the CNY revaluation perspectives, hundreds of billions of US dollars have been invested in various types of CNY-related derivatives products. The purpose of this book is not to tell the reader whether the RMB should be revalued, or by how much it should be revalued, as these questions are the work of economists. Instead, as a derivatives specialist with more than te years' experience in the international financial market and with working experience in China in the past few years, the author presents trading of CNY-related derivatives products in the offshore marketplace. The book is organized into five parts. The first part familiarizes readers with the Chinese economy in transition and the Chinese financial market, so that they can make their own judgment as to whether or not the CNY should be revalued. Part II presents major foreign exchange derivatives trading in organized exchanges and the over-the-counter marketplace around the world. Part III reviews what foreign exchange products were involved both before and during the Asian financial crisis, because many of them were used to speculate or hedge against devaluations of the Asian currencies. Part IV studies various CNY-related derivatives products and embedded derivatives products. Finally, Part V examines the possible impacts of these derivatives products on the CNYexchange rate, based on the experiences of other currencies such as the Korean won and the New Taiwan dollar.

The book includes selected papers of Morris Goldstein on the following topics in international macroeconomics: international trade, currency regimes, exchange rate policy, international policy coordination, banking, financial crises, financial regulation, IMF policies, and China's exchange rate policy. Some of the papers are empirical in nature, while others address key policy issues in international macroeconomics. Many of the papers are co-authored with other well-known international economists, including Jacob Frenkel, Mohsin Khan, Nicholas Lardy, Peter Montiel, Michael Mussa, Carmen Reinhart, and Philip Turner, among others. Taken as a group, the papers should give the reader a good picture of many of the most important issues in international macroeconomics over the past 35 years.

Volume 1. China and India: The International Context and Economic Growth, Manufacturing Performance and Rural Development -- Volume 2. Competitiveness, External Cooperation Strategy, and Income Distribution: Changes in China -- Volume 3. Economic Growth, Employment and Inclusivity: The International Environment

A close-up look at the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong in the Shadow of China is a reflection on the recent political turmoil in Hong Kong during which the Chinese government insisted on gradual movement toward electoral democracy and hundreds of thousands of protesters occupied major thoroughfares to push for full democracy now. Fueling this struggle is deep public resentment over growing inequality and how the political system—established by China and dominated by the local business community—reinforces the divide been those who have profited immensely and those who struggle for basics such as housing. Richard Bush, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on East Asia Policy Studies, takes us inside the demonstrations and the demands of the demonstrators and then pulls back to critically explore what Hong Kong and China must do to ensure both economic competitiveness and good governance and the implications of Hong Kong developments for United States policy.

The recent financial crisis, rooted in the United States, has changed the world’s economic and financial structures. The Chinese government has made some arrangements in the post-crisis to ensure stable economic growth in volatile international economic environments and to protect its own interests from unfair international monetary treatments. The internationalization of Renminbi (RMB) is one of China's most important national strategies in the 21st century and is symbolic in the rise of China. This book aims to document the process and the development of the internationalization of Renminbi and to identify the challenges. The book introduces an index of internationalization of Renminbi. It also uses a comprehensive multi-variable index to determine the degree of internationalization of Renminbi. This book helps readers to understand the current status of the reformation on China’s currency system, the process of internationalization of the RMB and the current, intricate political and economic relations.

The imbalance between China’s currency, the RMB, and those of other countries is widely regarded as a major problem for the world economy. There was a reform of China’s exchange rate mechanism in 2005, following which the RMB appreciated 17% against the US dollar, but many people argue that further reform is still needed. This book reports on a major research project undertaken following the 2005 reform to assess the impact on China’s economy. It considers the impact in a number of areas of the economy, including export-oriented companies, the banking industry, international trade, international capital flows, and China’s macroeconomic policy. It concludes that the policies pursued so far have been correct, and that further reform, both to the exchange rate, and to the system overall, would be desirable, but that any reform should be gradual and incremental, preserving economic stability, and integrating changes with reform in other parts of the economy.