Via Capital Economics today:
• China’s foreign exchange reserves data suggest that the People’s Bank has not been directly intervening to limit the renminbi’s recent gains against the dollar. That partly reflects the fact that the renminbi has strengthened much less against other currencies than against the dollar. But it also suggests that policymakers are more relaxed about market-driven exchange rate moves than in the past.
• The value of the reserves amounted to $3,161bn at the end of January, up $22bn from a month earlier (both the Bloomberg median and our forecast were $3,170bn). This was a twelfth straight monthly increase, amounting to a cumulative rise of $163bn. Reserves are still $832 down from their peak in mid2014. (See Chart 1.)
