Yuan within reasonable range

The yuan exchange rate against the US dollar is in a reasonable range and China should follow its own pace in exchange rate reform to avoid disruptions in its economy, analysts said Thursday, in response to a US report which said the yuan is undervalued.

The US Department of the Treasury said Wednesday in a semi-annual report to the Congress that the yuan exchange rate remains "significantly undervalued", but did not cite China or any other country for intentionally manipulating its currency to gain unfair trade advantage.

China should go further and allow the market to play a greater role in determining the exchange rate and the yuan continues to have room for further appreciation based on the growth of the Chinese economy, the US report said.

The Obama and Bush administrations did not name China as a "currency manipulator" in previous reports but US lawmakers had debated over whether to list China as a country that was manipulating its currency between 2002 and 2005.

"The recent exchange rate at between 6.1 yuan and 6.2 yuan to one US dollar is in a reasonable range," Tao Wenzhao, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times Thursday.

The yuan has appreciated over 30 percent against the US dollar since the beginning of China's exchange rate reform in 2005, in which the country moved to a managed floating exchange rate regime based on market demand and supply with reference to a basket of currencies.

Zhang Yansheng, secretary-general of the Academic Committee at the National Development and Reform Commission, told the Global Times Thursday that China's exchange rate reform should follow its own rhythm by increasing the role of the market in adjusting the exchange rate, coupled with macro-regulation by the government based on the market supply and demand.

The quantitative easing policies adopted by the world's major economies including the US, EU and Japan have injected excess money in the world economy, which could push the yuan to an abnormally high level, Zhang said, noting that the Chinese government can eliminate the effect of short-term fluctuations in capital inflows into the country with macro-regulation.

In a significant progress in the exchange rate reform, the country's central bank in March expanded the daily trading band of the yuan against the US dollar to 2.0 percent above or below a daily reference rate, from its previous 1 percent limit.

Driven by the yuan appreciation, the imports from the US increased 4.9 percent year-on-year in the first three quarters of this year, which helped narrow China's trade surplus with the US, according to data from the General Administration of Customs of China.