May 11, 2010
CHINA C. BANK: "The changes are coming" ( they want a basket of currencies)
BEIJING (Dow Jones)--The change of wording regarding China's exchange-rate system in the central bank's first-quarter monetary policy report signals it is ready to move on adjusting the special exchange-rate system adopted during the global financial crisis, the China Business
News reported Tuesday, citing Xia Bin, a well-known academic who was recently appointed as an adviser to the People's Bank of China.
The report cited Xia as saying he expects the yuan exchange-rate mechanism to return to the system of referencing a basket of currencies. "The changes are coming," he said, according to the report.
In its quarterly report issued Monday, the PBOC referred to its currency system as a managed float that references a basket of various currencies.
The central bank has used that wording numerous times in the past to describe its exchange-rate system, though such language hasn't appeared in recent quarterly monetary policy reports.
The yuan's rate has barely changed against the U.S. dollar since the start of the global financial crisis. But China has said it will exit its extraordinary exchange-rate policy sooner or later.
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