The Internationalization of the RMB, Capital Market Openness, and Financial Reforms in China

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of Chinese financial and trade integration in recent decades, and the challenges facing China in the coming years. China had been a prime example of export-led growth, benefiting from learning by doing, and by adopting foreign know-how, supported by a complex industrial policy. While the resultant growth has been spectacular, it comes with hidden but growing costs and distortions. The Chinese export-led growth path has been challenged by its own success, and the Global Financial Crisis forced China toward rebalancing, which is a work in progress. Reflecting on the internationalization of the CNY, one expects the rapid accelerating of the commercial internationalization of the CNY. In contrast, there are no clear-cut reasons to rush with the full CNY financial internationalization: The gains from CNY financial internationalization are overrated.

Keywords: export led growth, CNY internationalization, mercantilism, financial integration, FDI

JEL Classification: E6, F3, F4, F6, O2, O4