Update for Recent development in Chinese Yuan
1. The expectation or speculation about a Chinese Yuan revaluation started from the beginning of 2003.
2. Why we say 2003? Because the Non-deliverable forward of USD against Chinese Yuan started to fall into discount from premium at the beginning of 2003.
3. Non-deliverable forward is a type of derivative in the foreign exchange market where by the home currency is not delivered (or settled, transferred) at maturity, instead the difference of market rate against the contract rate is settled with a reference currency (usually USD).
4. China has a very restricted money market and therefore commercial loans are not readily accessible in short tenor such as overnight or 1 week, the most common interest rate benchmark in China is a 1-year bank lending rate, which currently stands at 5.31%, if we compare the Chinese interest rate with the US rate of the same tenor (1 Year US rate is approximately 2.35%), in foreign exchange market, assumed that Chinese Yuan is convertible, the USD should be at a premium against the Chinese Yuan. In the non-deliverable market, however, the USD is trading at a discount against Chinese Yuan after January 2003, which obviously is not logical from an interest arbitrage point of view. The reason is that the assumption that Chinese Yuan is freely convertible is void, the USD discount ( for instance 1-year non-deliverable forward discount of USD is 2400 pips or 0.24 Yuan) is an implied expectation of Chinese Yuan revaluation in one year's time as perceived by the market.
5. The expectation that Chinese Yuan would appreciate and happen in foreseeable future was advocated by major US Investment Bank ...