After a weak start to the year, China’s renminbi has stormed back as tactical intervention by the central bank has subsided, allowing market forces to reassert themselves.
The currency fell for four straight months at the start of the year, its longest bear run since China established its modern foreign exchange market in 1994. But now a hefty trade surplus and renewed confidence in the macro economy are driving the market.
At its 2014 low point of Rmb6.2593 per US dollar on April 30, the renminbi was down 3.4 per cent on the year, a disastrous performance by the standards of China’s tightly controlled currency, which has notched year-on-year gains every year since 1994 save for a small drop in 1999.