Debating China's Exchange Rate Policy

More than two and a half years have passed since China announced a number of changes to its foreign exchange regime in July 2005. During this period, the debate on the pros and cons of China's exchange rate policy, which had begun in earnest several years earlier, intensified. This important new book, based on an Institute conference in October 2007, takes stock of exchange rate policy in China and identifies the major policy options going forward.

Specific proposals presented in the volume address how best to eliminate any misalignment of the renminbi; how best to reduce pressures emanating from the sterilization of large reserve accumulation; how best to make capital flows the ally―not the enemy―of exchange rate policy; and what institutional arrangements and policy guidelines to put in place to reap the greatest benefits from management of China's large foreign exchange reserves. Leading experts―including three from China―have contributed to the volume. The keynote address by Wu Xiaoling, deputy governor to the People's Bank of China at the time of the conference, is also presented in the book.

Morris Goldstein, nonresident senior fellow, has held several senior staff positions at the International Monetary Fund (1970–94), including Deputy Director of its Research Department (1987–94). From 1994 to 2010, he held the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow position at the Peterson Institute. He has written extensively on international economic policy and on international capital markets.

Philip Turner is Deputy Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, which he joined in 1989. Recent papers include "The exit from non-conventional monetary policy: what challenges?", "The global long-term interest rate, financial risks and policy choices in EMEs" and "Caveat creditor".Between 1976 and 1989, he held various positions, including head of division in the Economics Department at the OECD in Paris. In 1985-86, he was a visiting scholar at the Bank of Japan's Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies in Tokyo.

Nicholas R. Lardy, called "everybody's guru on China" by the National Journal, is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He joined the Institute in March 2003 from the Brookings Institution, where he was a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program (1995-03) and served as interim director of Foreign Policy Studies (2001). Lardy has written numerous articles and books on the Chinese economy including Debating China's Exchange Rate Policy (2008), China: The Balance Sheet (2006), Prospects for a US-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement (2004), Integrating China into the Global Economy (2002), and China's Unfinished Economic Revolution (1998). Lardy is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of the editorial boards of the China Quarterly, Journal of Asian Business, China Review, and China Economic Review.