Monday, June 26, 2023

Thoughts On China's Currency Weakness (Russia, Russia, Russia)

Not my thoughts, some guy named Huang. I can't tell if someone is dumping the currency or the Chinese powers-that-be have decided to crush the German machine tool industry.

And a dozen other German export industries.

Following up on a point raised in the post immediately below, "The China-driven metals ‘super cycle’ is over, Jefferies says", from Asia Times, June 27:

PBoC eases RMB, triggering a debate in the process
Chinese pundits have mixed views on whether to blame Russia for dumping the renminbi it received from trade 

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has allowed a 2% drop of the Chinese currency so far this month after China’s exports and foreign direct investment (FDI) fell year on year in May.

The country’s central bank on Monday lowered the Chinese currency’s daily midpoint by 261 basis points, leading to a further depreciation of renminbi.

On Monday, the yuan fell to 7.23 to one United States dollar, getting close to the 7.3 level recorded last October and November when China still had zero-Covid rules. Over the past three months, it has fallen by 5%.

Due to the yuan depreciation and the weaker-than-expected tourism data during last week’s three-day Dragon Boat Festival, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.48% to 3,150 on Monday. The Hang Seng Index, the benchmark of Hong Kong’s stock market, decreased 0.51% to 18,794.

The yuan depreciation triggered a debate on the internet in China over whether Beijing’s promotion of renminbi internationalization played a role.

Some Chinese commentators blamed Brazil, Argentina and Russia, which started accepting yuan payments for their exports to China earlier this year but kept selling the Chinese currency to obtain Western ones.

A Shandong-based writer surnamed Huang published an article with the title, “Is Russia crazily selling off renminbi? We cannot rule out this possibility.” ...

....MUCH MORE