What a long, strange trip it has been for the renminbi since the Chinese government ended the exchange rate’s strict peg to the US dollar 10 years ago this week.
At the time, economists hailed the event as a landmark step towards allowing market forces to set the exchange rate and a concession to trading partners who complained that the currency was undervalued. They were not wrong.
Yet a decade later, it is striking that while the renminbi has appreciated by a third, government intervention remains a daily reality. While economists expect further steps by the Chinese government to loosen its grip on both the exchange rate and cross-border capital flows, the pace of change over the next 10 years is likely to be slower than in the last.