In the run-up to President Obama's descent on China, markets had worked themselves into a lather over the prospective appreciation of the renminbi, held at about 6.83 to the dollar since July last year, after three years of gains. Heads of the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank had called for a stronger renminbi to help smooth the imbalances manifest in the US trade deficit and Chinese trade surplus. China seemed game: a quarterly policy report last week from the central bank dropped a pledge to keep the currency “basically stable”. Last Thursday the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Group, meeting in Singapore, said it backed “market orientated exchange rates that reflect underlying economic fundamentals”.
在美國總統奧巴馬(Obama)到訪中國前夕，市場自說自話地開始憧憬人民幣的升值前景。在走高3年之后，人民幣兌美元匯率自去年7月以來一直維持在1美元兌6.83元人民幣左右。國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)和歐洲央行(ECB)的負責人均呼吁人民幣走強，以幫助解決美國貿易逆差和中國貿易順差所體現的失衡。中國似乎也有所動作：上周中國央行發布的一份季度政策報告中，保持人民幣“基本穩定”的承諾不見了。上周四，在新加坡召開會議的亞太經合組織(APEC)表示，支持“以市場為導向、反映經濟基本面因素的匯率”。