Trump about-face restores global RMB hopes

In an article published hours after Donald Trump said China would not be labelled as a currency manipulator, a senior Chinese central bank official said China should enhance and strengthen the role of the yuan as an international reserve currency, the South China Morning Post reports. The article by Zhu Jun, head of international department at the People’s Bank of China, published in the official Shanghai Securities News on Thursday, reflected Beijing’s regained confidence in boosting the global profile of the yuan – a longstanding target that had been put on the back burner since late 2015 when Beijing’s priority shifted to stemming capital outflow and the currency’s depreciation. Zhu said China should work hard to promote the yuan’s international use partly because that its inclusion in the Special Drawing Rights currency basket of the International Monetary Fund is not permanent. The central bank official added that much work remained to consolidate global confidence in the currency.