The yuan fell after Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), meeting with US President George W. Bush in Washington, declined to respond to pressure to seek a stronger currency.
"It's not an inspiring outcome," said Shahab Jalinoos, head of Asian currency strategy at ABN Amro in Singapore. "Bush didn't push particularly aggressively on China's exchange rate and Hu didn't give them much in that area either."
Hu said after the meeting in Washington on Thursday that the government "will continue to make adjustments" in its exchange rate regime. Bush said he wanted "more appreciation."
The yuan's gains had been accelerating in the past six weeks on speculation China would use Hu's trip as an opportunity to loosen controls on trading the currency.
Surging exports and investment in manufacturing helped China's economy grow 10.2 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, the fastest of the world's 20 largest economies. US lawmakers argue the yuan is kept artificially weak to give exporters an advantage, contributing to the nation's US$201.6 billion deficit with China last year.
The yuan fell 0.06 percent to 8.017 per US dollar as of 3:30pm in Shanghai. The currency has risen 1.2 percent since it was revalued by 2.1 percent on July 21, halting a decade-old peg to the US dollar.
The biggest intraday rally in the yuan since the peg ended is half the maximum 0.3 percent that the People's Bank of China said it would allow the currency to rise or fall each day. It may rise to 7.8 percent by the end of this year, Jalinoos said.
"We will continue to make adjustments to the renminbi exchange-rate regime," Hu said on Thursday, sitting next to Bush in the Oval Office in Washington. "We do not pursue an excessively high trade surplus" with the US.
Gains in the yuan have stalled since the currency rose on April 10 to 8.0022, the strongest since the revaluation. The currency has weakened 0.13 percent in the 10 days through yesterday.
The US Treasury's Snow pushed Chinese central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) and National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Ma Kai (馬凱) for greater currency flexibility during meetings on Thursday in Washington, a Treasury official said.
The Chinese officials told Snow their government's five-year economic plan will bring more balanced domestic growth, the Treasury official said. The official, who couldn't be identified under Treasury Department briefing rules, didn't say how either message was received and declined to take questions.
The IMF, WTO and Japanese government joined the US in seeking faster yuan gains. The appreciation should reflect China's economic strength, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said yesterday in Tokyo.
"Potentially there would be some disappointment for some people," said Richard Yetsenga, a currency strategist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong. The US visit by Hu "hasn't been a watershed in terms of generating anything new."
Meanwhile, a White House official said on Thursday that China's moves toward currency flexibility were "not nearly enough" to satisfy US concerns.
The official added, however, that the Bush administration is hopeful about some progress in the future.
"The Chinese are beginning to use their new system for having a flexible currency," said Dennis Wilder, an Asia specialist with the White House National Security Council. "It's not enough, it's not nearly enough."
His comments came after Bush met with Hu at the White House and pressed him to take steps to reduce China's huge trade surplus with the US.
Hu assured Bush he was working to make the Chinese currency more flexible but gave no specifics.
"We're disappointed with how slowly they've moved to use it. But over time we believe they have the ability to use it more," Wilder said.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
The National Development Council (NDC) yesterday unveiled details of new regulations that ease restrictions on foreigners working or living in Taiwan, as part of a bid to attract skilled workers from abroad. The regulations, which could go into effect in the first quarter of next year, stem from amendments to the Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及僱用法) passed by lawmakers on Aug. 29. Students categorized as “overseas compatriots” would be allowed to stay and work in Taiwan in the two years after their graduation without obtaining additional permits, doing away with the evaluation process that is currently required,
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS