Exchange controls

摘要

The value of the renminbi strengthened in 2021, rising to Rmb6.37:US$1 by year-end, compared with Rmb6.54:US$1 at end-2020. The rise of the Chinese currency was driven mainly by strong exports and foreign fund inflows motivated by the promise of relatively high returns. The country's stockpile of foreign currency, the world's largest, stood at US$3.25trn at end-2021, up from US$3.22trn a year earlier. The progressive decline in the currency's value in previous years formed the basis of US accusations that the Chinese government is a currency manipulator. The US government in 2020 announced that it had stopped using the currency manipulator designation for China, citing as evidence a recent strengthening of the renminbi. Nevertheless, in December 2021 the US Treasury Department issued its semi-annual report on macroeconomic and foreign exchange policies of major trading partners, in which it listed China, alongside countries like Germany, Japan and South Korea, as "major trading partners that merit close attention to their currency practices".