ADBI RESEARCH POLICY BRIEF No. 18
PRC
Toshiki Kanamori
and Zhijun Zhao
Renminbi Revaluation:
Lessons and Experiences
The views expressed in this paper are the views of the author and do
not necessarily reflect the view or policies of the Asian Development
Bank Institute.
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Contents
Executive Summary 1
Introduction 8
1. Developments in Early 1970s 8
2. Developments in Mid–late 1980s 10
3. Capital Flow and Regulations on Capital Account Transactions During
These Periods 11
4. Policy Responses of Japanese Authority 12
4.1 Early 1970s 12
4.2 Mid–late 1980s 13
5. Lessons to be Learned 14
5.1 Similarities and Differences Between the PRC and Japan 14
5.2 Impact on Macro Economy 17
5.3 Independent Monetary Policy and Regulations on Capital Flow 18
5.4 External Imbalance and Exchange Rate Adjustment 20
5.5 Impact on Different Interest Groups 21
5.6 Long-term Impact of Currency Appreciation 22
Select References 23
End Notes 23
Executive Summary
Japan experienced sharp appreciations of the yen twice after World War II,
the first followed by hyperinflation and the second by the “economic bubble”
in the late 1980s. The country then underwent a long recession, the so-called
“lost decade.” Some Chinese economists are worried that if the renminbi
were sharply appreciated for a very short period of time, the PRC might
follow the same path of recession that Japan experienced. To avoid such a
path, can the PRC learn any possible lessons from Japan’s experiences?
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1. Similarities and Differences Between the PRC and Japan
Japan’s economic situation during the early 1970s and the mid–late 1980s
somewhat resembles the PRC’s recent economic situation. The US also
suffered the collapse of a new economy bubble from 2001 until recently. This
aggravated the so-called twin trade and fiscal deficits in the US economy and
put a downward pressure on the value of the dollar. Domestically, since the
PRC joined the WTO in December 2001 and started to gradually liberalize its
capital account transactions, the country has registered an increasing trade
surplus and accumulated a large amount of foreign reserves, though some
efforts have been made to ease the appreciation pressure on the renminbi.
Three aspects of the situations faced by Japan differ importantly from
that faced now by the PRC, making for more intense pressure for renminbi
appreciation than that historically put on the yen. First, because the
economies of the world are now more closely interlinked through trade, more
FDI and international money flow now than when Japan faced the yen
appreciations. Second, most major countries have now, in principle,
completed liberalization on current and capital account transactions under a
floating exchange regime and removed various external barriers. Third,
unlike Japan during these periods, the PRC’s capital account balance
continues to register a large surplus.
The PRC currently faces two serious factors that did not exist in Japan.
These may explain why the government is very careful about or strongly
resists renminbi appreciation. One factor is the serious unemployment
problem in rural areas and the mounting pressure to create employment
opportunities in urban areas. The other relates to solving non-performing
loans (NPL) in state-owned banks. The PRC government and four asset
management companies have been trying to involve foreign investors in the
liquidation and disposal of NPLs. A sharp appreciation of the renminbi would
definitely discourage them from participating in the NPL disposal.
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2. Impact on Macro Economy
Loose monetary policy was one of the underlying factors of the serious
inflation Japan faced both after the early 1970s and in the mid–late 1980s.
Also, policy change was not implemented in a timely fashion in either period.
However, the impact of the currency appreciation on the economy tended to
be overemphasized. Thanks to the appreciation of the yen, prices of raw
materials declined and terms of trade were improved significantly, even
benefiting Japanese industries. The international competitiveness of Japanese
commodities was also unexpectedly high in terms of quality management.
These unexpected benefits indicate the importance and difficulty of assessing
the behavioral change and international competitiveness of enterprises and
predicting the overall impact of currency fluctuation on the macro economy.
The PRC’s currency was undervalued by an average of 17 percent in
past years. Thus, the 2.1 percent revaluation of the currency announced in
July 2005 is not sufficient to weaken the competitive power of the PRC
economy and reduce the trade surplus against the US. The balance of trade
may even continue expanding short term. The revaluation also has a limited
impact on overall inflation. Considering the chain effects and accumulated
effects of renminbi revaluation, the PRC economy could endure more
extensive revaluations from the macro economic point of view. However, the
PRC’s main problems are not in the aggregate level, which is maintaining 9
percent growth, but in the structural or sectoral levels. The government is
worrying most about the agricultural and automobile sectors, which may be
easily affected by renminbi revaluation, and the unemployment problem
induced by revaluation.
Currently FDI in the PRC is one of the major sources for absorbing
excess labor and mitigating the unemployment problem. If the renminbi is
sharply appreciated, the PRC’s noncompetitive agriculture sector and SOEs
will be affected and more excess labor will be created; FDI may somewhat
decline due to the higher operating costs in the Mainland. Overall, prices
have remained stable in the PRC. However, inflationary pressure, especially
in terms of real estate price has been increasing in recent years and such a
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trend may continue over the next few years. This pressure comes not only
from the undervaluation of the renminbi, but from some other factors.
Economically, to stabilize the renminbi exchange rate under the surplus in the
current account, the PRC has to absorb U.S. dollars (USD) by issuing
renminbi notes, which increases the money supply. Politically, the new PRC
Administration differs from the old one in that it tends to accommodate all
requests for development assistance from regional governments to address
regional disparities. This additional funding to regional governments is also
putting inflationary pressure on the economy as a whole.
3. Independent Monetary Policy and Capital Regulation
The events of both the early 1970s and mid–late 1980s raised the traditional
question of a trilemma among the three economic goals: ensuring free
international capital transactions, maintaining independence of the monetary
policy, and keeping a pegged exchange rate regime. In the early 1970s, Japan
tried to maintain a pegged exchange regime while allowing adjusted inflation
to achieve external balance. In the mid–late 1980s, under the framework of
international policy coordination put forward in the Plaza and Louvre
Accords, readjusting or keeping exchange rates stable became a major goal of
monetary policy. Differing views may exist about the goals of monetary
policy, but in this case, when monetary policy lost its freedom, domestic
equilibrium was sacrificed.
We must take note that the trilemma argument generally applies to
small-sized economies and cannot necessarily explain the situation in the
PRC. The argument states that a small country cannot carry out an
independent monetary policy and a fixed exchange rate policy while keeping
free capital flow. At its early stage of economic reform, PRC was
economically a small country. Monetary policy was regarded as an indication
of sovereignty and had to be maintained. If the trilemma argument applied to
the PRC, although its capital account transactions are not fully liberalized, a
fixed exchange rate could not be kept for long, especially when facing a trade
surplus.
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The PRC can no longer be regarded as a small country; the US pressure
on the renminbi exchange rate shows its economic significance. As a large
economy, the PRC can carry out an independent monetary policy under a
fixed exchange rate regime with regulated capital transactions. Thus, for the
PRC internally, a fixed rate regime may not be a very serious problem,
although it may result in external imbalance and incur foreign pressure.
These imbalances are caused not only by the exchange rate, but also by other
factors, such as the US war on terror and the collapse of the US bubble
economy.
In fact, the current problem between the PRC and the US could be
resolved through either external or domestic adjustment—adjusting the
renminbi exchange rate is only one of the options available. Regarding
regulations on capital transactions, the PRC is moving to lift regulations on
capital outflow with the “Go Overseas” (Zou chuqu) policy, which is
expected to mitigate appreciation pressure to some extent. However, there
would be an increasing risk if the PRC further deregulated capital outflow
while keeping a rigid exchange rate regime. This is the issue of policy
sequencing. In the case of Japan, the move toward a floating exchange
regime took place in tandem with the deregulation of capital account
transactions.
4. External Imbalance and Exchange Rate Adjustment
Japan’s experience also indicates that external balance cannot be achieved
only through exchange rate adjustment. Currency appreciation is generally
expected to raise export prices in terms of USD, which cuts down price
competitiveness and decreases export volume. However, in the mid-1980s,
export prices in USD terms were raised by only 50 percent in terms of the
percentage change of yen appreciation and the overall export volume was not
much affected. The remaining 50 percent was absorbed by the streamlining
efforts by the enterprises and the decline of the prices of imported raw
materials.
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Overall saving should be matched by overall investment, i.e. over
saving in the domestic sector, should be offset by over investment in the
external sector. The current I-S imbalance reflects a domestic I-S imbalance
among the countries concerned. Since under a free international capital flow
regime, the exchange rate itself is deeply affected by capital flow and interest
rates, the adjustment role of exchange rates to current balance tends to be
diminished. Therefore, focusing on the structural I-S imbalance of each
country is essential to solve external imbalance problems. In the PRC context,
the current surplus is roughly matched by huge over-saving in the household
sector. Since exports by foreign-invested companies account for more than
half of the PRC’s total exports, exports may not be seriously affected by
appreciation of the renminbi. Companies that import raw materials and
intermediate goods from other countries could offset the impact of the
increase in export prices by a decline in import prices.
5. Impact on Different Interest Groups
Different interest groups are affected differently by currency fluctuation and
some groups have a bigger voice than others. Balancing interests is important,
yet difficult. For Japan, doubtless the manufacturing industry sectors such as
steel and machineries suffered from the appreciation of the yen, and they had
more ability to influence policymaking. Meanwhile, non-manufacturing
industries and consumers who must have benefited were not so politically
influential, and their views were not reflected in the decision-making.
Who in the PRC benefits and who loses due to the appreciation of the
renminbi? State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and state-owned banks (SOBs),
having no international competitiveness, and other export industries
including agriculture will definitely suffer. Foreign-invested companies in
general will also suffer. This may affect FDI as a whole, but the effect should
not be too serious—many foreign-invested companies are no longer looking
only for cheap labor in the PRC, but are looking at the huge potential of the
domestic market. Consumers may stand to benefit from renminbi
appreciation. As for the political influence of each group, the SOEs and
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SOBs may still have big voices but as the market economy matures and
people become richer, private enterprises and households are gaining
influence.
6. Long-term Impact of Currency Appreciation
We should watch not only the immediate impact of currency appreciation,
but also its long-term effect on the economy. The sharp appreciation of the
yen triggered upgrading or conversion of the industrial structure in both the
1970s and 1980s and made Japan a more advanced or high-value added
economy. For the PRC, the appreciation of the renminbi or moving to a more
flexible exchange rate regime should provide a good opportunity to move
toward a more market-oriented economy. The renminbi is severely
undervalued under a fixed exchange rate regime, which distorts resource
allocations. Appreciation of the renminbi will help to correct the distortion.
We estimate that the currency is undervalued by 17% in terms of the nominal
exchange rate. The variation of other estimates, however, indicates the
difficulty for a planned economy to reach consensus on the appropriate
equilibrium level. The best answer is to pursue marketization, adopting a
more flexible exchange rate regime and letting the market determine the
equilibrium level. However, the exchange rate is much more volatile than
goods prices, and its sometimes explosive behavior may bring about some
economic and political uncertainty.
Considering the negative experiences of Japan and the PRC and the
success of gradual reform, we think that the PRC should stay on the road
toward a more flexible exchange rate regime with a gradualist principle and
let the foreign exchange market explore its equilibrium level in two or three
years. This should avoid causing too many shocks to the economy and give
market participants more time to adjust their behavior and adapt to the new
exchange rate. The principles of controllability, gradualism, and balance
announced by the People’s Bank of China, are therefore the right ones.
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Introduction
Looking back at Japan’s history, the country experienced sharp appreciations
of the yen twice after World War II, the first followed by hyperinflation and
the second by the “economic bubble.” After the economic bubble in the late
1980s, Japan underwent a long recession, the so-called “lost decade.”
Many Chinese economists are worried that if the renminbi were sharply
appreciated for a very short period of time, the PRC might follow the same
path of recession that Japan experienced in the past. Local Chinese people
say, “一些経済学者認為中国人民幣如果迅速昇値、会重走日本経済不景
気的老路子 ”。[“Some economists are worried that if renminbi sharply
appreciates, PRC economy might follow the same old path of stagnation as
Japan experienced in the past.”]
To avoid such a path, can the PRC learn any lessons from Japan’s
experiences?
1. Developments in Early 1970s
On August 15, 1971, US President Richard Nixon announced a new
economic policy that consisted of nine economic measures. The purpose of
this policy was three-fold: to curb inflationary pressure, to stimulate
economic activities and increase employment opportunities, and to address
the balance of payment (BOP). In particular, in connection with BOP policy,
the US declared the temporary suspension of the convertibility of the US
dollar (USD) to gold. That this is called the “Nixon Shock” in Japan shows
how shocked the country was by this announcement and the following sharp
appreciation of the Japanese yen.
The suspension of the USD’s convertibility to gold was a natural
consequence of several developments that necessitated a defense of the
currency. After World War II, the world economy had been primarily led by
the US. However, after the mid-1950s, the situation gradually changed. Japan
and the European countries started to recover and even catch up with the US.
Meanwhile, the US was bogged down with the Vietnam War in the late
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1960s; the increase in military expenditures put an enormous pressure on the
US economy. The US was also suffering from serious labor disputes. The
relative international competitiveness of the US economy in relation to Japan
and the European nations thus declined, taking with it the people’s
confidence in the USD.
Immediately after the US announcement, while European countries
closed their foreign exchange markets, Japan kept its market open and tried
to maintain a pegged rate system. During the following two weeks, Japan,
facing mounting selling pressure of the USD, kept buying dollars, reaching
an amount equivalent to 2 trillion yen (or 5.2 billion USD at that time). This
amount was also almost equal to the total Bank of Japan lending outstanding
to the commercial banks at that time. However, even such large-scale
intervention did not achieve the intended goal and in the end major countries
including Japan decided to abandon the fixed exchange rate system on
August 30. Due to the intervention in the market during these two weeks, the
Japanese commercial banks were left with excessive yen liquidity, so the
Bank of Japan exceptionally issued promissory notes in the market and tried
to absorb the excessive liquidity.
In December 1971, the G-10 Finance Ministers met at the Smithsonian
Museum in Washington, DC and agreed to readjust the exchange rates and
resume a fixed exchange system. Under the Smithsonian Agreement, the
value of gold increased from 35 to 38 USD per ounce, a 7.89 percent increase.
At the same time, all of the major currencies appreciated significantly in
relation to the USD; in particular the Japanese yen appreciated from the
previous fixed rate of 360 yen to 308 yen to the dollar, a 16.88 percent
increase. This was the highest among the major currencies. In addition, a
more flexible wide band was adopted under the Smithsonian Agreement.
Under the past fixed rate regime, currencies were allowed to fluctuate only
within a very narrow range of plus or minus 1.5 percent. This range was
widened to 2.25 percent each way under the Smithsonian Agreement.
However, even after the agreement at the Smithsonian, the confidence
in the USD was not fully restored: speculation on the possibility of further
readjustment prevailed in the market and the selling pressure on the USD
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continued. Finally, in February and March 1973, Japan and other European
nations decided to give up the fixed rate system and eventually the fixed rate
regime completely came to an end. As of early 1973, the Japanese yen had
appreciated to around 260 yen per dollar.
Japan’s economy had been experiencing a relatively long period of
buoyancy since the mid-1960s. To avoid overheating the economy, the
Japanese monetary authority started to adopt a tight monetary policy in 1969.
With the slowdown of the Japanese economy, the trade surplus increased. In
addition, low interest rates in the US led to an increase in capital inflow to
Japan through foreign investment in Japanese securities. The short-term
volatile capital inflow to Japan also contributed to widening Japan’s BOP
imbalance and accumulating foreign reserves.
In early 1971 Japan’s economy had shown signs of recovery, but the
“Nixon Shock” and the following Smithsonian Agreement completely
reversed entrepreneurs’ sentiments from optimism to pessimism and
significantly cut down exports. The Economic White Paper of the Japanese
Government at that time correctly mentioned that the radical ad