All currency wars are self-defeating for their combatants. When a country slashes the value of its currency to boost exports, it inevitably triggers competitive devaluations by its trading partners, thereby robbing the first mover of its initial advantage. Thus it is unlikely that China, which in effect devalued the renminbi by 2 per cent yesterday, was intending to whip up currency skirmishes among its trade partners into a full-scale war.
所有的貨幣戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)都會(huì)對(duì)參戰(zhàn)方自身造成損害。當(dāng)一國(guó)大幅壓低其貨幣幣值以提振出口時(shí),不可避免地會(huì)引發(fā)其貿(mào)易伙伴國(guó)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)性貶值,從而令率先貶值的國(guó)家喪失其最初的優(yōu)勢(shì)。因此,中國(guó)昨天在實(shí)質(zhì)上將人民幣貶值2%的行為,其用意不太可能是把貿(mào)易伙伴國(guó)之間在匯率上的小沖突激化為一場(chǎng)全面貨幣戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)。