There has been plenty of talk about fighting inflation at China’s annual National People’s Congress this week and a lot of talk about boosting demand. But one way of addressing both aims – a stronger currency – has been almost completely ignored by the top leadership. Yi Gang, central bank deputy governor, has merely claimed that the renminbi’s current exchange rate, 3.9 per cent stronger against the US dollar since June last year, is the closest it has been to “equilibrium”.
As much as the politburo would like the currency question to go away, it is unlikely to. US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner’s assertion last week that the renminbi remains “substantially undervalued” marked a re-emergence of a narrative that had faded since June, when the People’s Bank said it was replacing its two-year-old peg with a managed float.
Today’s trade data may show a halving of China’s trade surplus over the first two months, year on year, strengthening the impression that a rebalancing is under way. But even if the full-year surplus falls as much as it did last year, China will still be set for a mega-surplus of some $170bn. As Capital Economics points out, a US index of Chinese export prices was up by less than