China’s central bank has scrapped two rules intended to strengthen the renminbi, in a sign that official nervousness about currency depreciation and capital flight has eased.
The renminbi has gained 6.9 per cent this year, reversing all of last year’s record loss of 6.5 per cent and putting the currency on pace for its best year ever. China’s foreign exchange reserves have risen for seven straight months since hitting a three-year low in January.
In a notice sent to banks late on Friday, the People’s Bank of China dropped a requirement that raised the cost of using currency forwards — a type of foreign-exchange derivative — to bet on renminbi depreciation, according to a senior foreign-exchange trader at a Chinese bank in Shanghai.