China's decision to restore the crawling peg for the renminbi after a two-year fix was cleverly timed. Sandwiched between the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue forum last month and the forthcoming Group of 20 meeting in Toronto, the announcement at the weekend will spike the guns of the US, where pressure for trade sanctions has been building. It will also shift the G20 focus away from the renminbi to the subject of global imbalances, where many countries see the US as more to blame.
實施了兩年固定匯率制度后,中國決定恢復對人民幣實施爬行盯住匯率制度,其時機的選擇非常聰明。夾在上月的美中戰略經濟對話論壇(US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue forum)與即將召開的20國集團(G20)多倫多峰會之間,上周末宣布的這個決定讓貿易制裁壓力日增的美國啞了火。它還會將G20關注的焦點從人民幣轉到全球失衡上,而許多國家認為美國對后者負有更大的責任。