Official: Right time to open China's capital account

A Chinese central bank official said the country will further liberalize its capital account, allowing investment to move more freely flow across its border, thanks to currently favorable economic conditions, Bloomberg reported. China will steadily push to open the capital account step-by-step during the next couple of years, People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Yi Gang told media in Washington, where he attended an IMF meeting on Wednesday. Yi says 80% of the items the IMF considers part of the capital account are already convertible or partially convertible in China. Based on separate remarks by Yi, analysts at investment bank UBS are predicting China will widen the range for trading the renminbi in the next 72 hours.