during the global financial crisis. In February 2012,
the renminbi reached a record high of 6.2884 per
dollar. In March 2012, China increased its efforts to
internationalise the renminbi by allowing all
companies in the country to pay their imports and
exports in renminbi '; In April 2012, China expanded
its trading band for the renminbi against the dollar to
1 percent up from 0.5 percent (Qing and
Magnowski, 2012). Due to the reforms in the
renminbi currency, China cannot manage its
finances at a low value without IMF approval. This
is related to the IV article agreement. The value of
the renminbi itself experienced a natural
appreciation of about 25 percent to the dollar
(brookings.edu, tt). The value of the appreciation
continued into 2014. Between 2008 and 2011,
China's trade surplus fell by almost half from $298
billion to $155 billion. The IMF, in 2015, declared
its currency to be "fairly valued" and in that year, the
IMF no longer accepted there as being problems
between the US and China. This was announced on
the official website of the IMF. In addition to a
reduction in the trade surplus, China also spent USD
$94 billion in reserves to keep its currency in August
2015, and its total reserves fell by about USD $400
billion from year-on-year usage and peaked a year
ago (reuters.com, tt).
China strongly opposed the surveillance decision
in 2006, as stated by the Governor of PBoC in an
inter-IMF committee meeting stating that "in
strengthening surveillance, the Fund should be
realistic and not overestimate the role of exchange
rates. Biased advice would damage the Fund's role in
safeguarding global economic and financial
stability". In 2012, China experienced a drastic
change in attitude toward its oversight function. At
the IMF Annual Meeting in 2012, Yi Gang, the
alternate IMF Governor Council for China, accepted
both bilateral and multilateral surveillance which
was then called integrated surveillance through its
statement as follows: “We welcome the adoption of
the Integrated Surveillance Decision by the IMF, as
a step in a positive direction to enhancing the
effectiveness of Fund surveillance through the better
integration of bilateral and multilateral surveillance,
together with a broadened focus on macroeconomic
policies” (Qu, tt)
The second monitor was invited by the Chinese
government directly in order to apply renminbi as
SDR basket currency. In 2006 at the IMF spring
meeting, the Governor of the People's Bank of
China, Zhou Xiaochuan, remarked on the need for
reforms in the currency reserve of SDR. At the IMF
in March 2015, Li Keqianag asked the IMF to put
the renminbi into the basket of SDR as follows:
“China hoped to, through the SDR, play an active
role in international cooperation to maintain
financial stability and promote the further opening of
China’s capital market and financial area. China will
push forward financial reform for the real economy
and the prevention of risk. China will develop
private, small and medium banks to provide better
support for small businesses.” (Gang, 2012)
To be a contributor of the renminbi currency in
the SDR basket, China needs to meet two general
criteria: 1) the exported currency being proposed
must be the currency with the greatest export value,
and 2) it must be free-usable, i.e. there is the use of
the currency widely in international transactions and
in foreign exchange trading by other countries in the
international currency market through the
assessment of the Executive Board as well as the
IMF board (IMF, tt). In the first criterion, China has
become an active country in international trade. The
IMF's board of directors and executive directors
noted that the ranking of the largest exporters
remained unchanged since the last review in 2005.
China has recorded an increase in world trade, such
as imported product figures from ASEAN member
countries of 33.1 percent, Japan by 27.3 percent,
India by 80 percent, the EU by 28 percent and the
US by 31.8 percent and an overall increase in world
trade between 7.7 percent and 10.5 percent (IMF,
2010). The second criterion is still encountering
problems. In 2010, the Executive Board undertook
an SDR assessment and concluded that four
currencies (U.S. dollars, euros, yen, and pounds)
remain the currencies in the SDR basket. At that
time, Chinese yuan was not considered to be used
freely and needed to reform the policy. Over 5 years,
China has become a country monitored in the
context of both fiscal and monetary policy, by the
IMF, specifically to meet the criteria of having a free
usable currency.
During China's monitoring, there were at least 7
successful financial reforms and capital controls
executed in China (IMF, tt). The first increase of the
“klirink” bank quotas for offshore exchanges was in
accordance with the value of the onshore interest
rate. Secondly, the corporate cross-border cash
pooling arrangement was expanded. The third was
when the Chinese authorities also recapitalised the
data based on the liquidity of their currencies by
introducing an average amount for the reserves in
each bank operating in China. The fourth was on
September 23rd, 2015. PBoC approved the issuance
of RMB securities by foreign financial institutions in
the inter-bank bond market of China. Fifth, a cross-
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