Renminbi Undervaluation, China's Surplus, and the US Trade Deficit

The impact of China's exchange rate on both its current account balance and the US-China bilateral trade balance is considerable. A 1 percent rise in the real effective exchange rate would cause a reduction in China's current account surplus of 0.30 to 0.45 percent of GDP. A 10 percent real effective appreciation would bring China's current account surplus down by roughly $170 billion to$250 billion annually with a corresponding improvement in the US current account balance ranging from $22 billion to$63 billion annually. William R. Cline also warns that the increasing trend for China's current account surplus, combined with the negative trend for the US deficit, indicate that adjustments accomplished through exchange rate correction at any one time will have a tendency to erode unless the renminbi successively appreciates by around 2 percent annually to reflect its rapid productivity growth. Special Chinese efforts to shift the economy away from external to domestic demand are important complements of exchange rate adjustment, without which the long-term trend toward a rising trade surplus could cause excess demand to grow and increase inflationary pressures on the economy.

Global Warming and Agriculture: Impact Estimates by Country

How will global warming affect developing countries, which rely heavily on agriculture as a source of economic growth? William Cline asserts that developing countries have more at risk than industrial countries as global warming worsens. Using general circulation and agricultural impact models, Cline boldly examines 2070-99 to forecast the effects of global warming and its economic impact. This detailed study: * outlines existing studies on the agricultural impact of climate change; * estimates projected changes in temperature, precipitation, and agricultural capacity; and * concludes with policy recommendations. * Cline finds that agricultural production in developing countries may fall between 10 and 25 percent, and if global warming progresses unabated, India's agricultural capacity could fall as much as 40 percent. Thus, policymakers should address this phenomenon now before the world's developing countries are adversely and irreversibly affected.

Estimating Consistent Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rates

This paper sets forth a new methodology for obtaining a consistent set of exchange rate realignments needed to accomplish international adjustment in current account imbalances to reach fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEERs). The approach is named the symmetric matrix inversion method (SMIM). It is symmetric in that ir treats all countries considered equally rather than seeking exact adjustment for the United States and obtaining other adjustments residually. Country-specific impact parameters based on assumed trade elasticities are applied to a target set of changes in current accounts as percentages of GDP to obtain a corresponding set of target changes in real effective (trade-weighted) exchange rates. A matrix inversion technique is then applied to identify the corresponding set of changes in bilateral exchange rates against the dollar needed to approach as closely as possible the target set of effective exchange rate changes.Exchange Rates, Current Account Adjustment, Dollar

Currency Wars?

More than a dozen countries, including Brazil, China, India, Japan, and Korea, have been intervening in the foreign exchange market to prevent their currencies from appreciating. There are fears that the second dose of quantitative easing in the United States (dubbed QE2) may worsen currency appreciation. These developments raise the prospect of a currency war, which the Group of Twenty (G-20) fears is gathering steam. Because many countries are simultaneously seeking to improve their balance of payments position, many are seeking a more competitive exchange rate. The laws of mathematics mean that some must be disappointed: A weaker exchange rate of one country implies a stronger rate of some other country or countries. Cline and Williamson argue that any agreement reached at the G-20 summit in Seoul to prevent an exchange rate war should be based on a distinction between countries with overvalued and undervalued currencies. Any accord should be designed to seek appreciation of the latter but not to debar the former from taking actions to prevent their currencies from becoming even more overvalued. Countries that are already overvalued on an effective basis--primarily floating emerging-market economies, but also Australia and New Zealand--should not be condemned for resisting further appreciation. But if a currency is substantially undervalued and the country is aggressively engaging in intervention to prevent appreciation, it is reasonable to judge that its intervention is unjustifiable. The authors show that a handful of high-surplus economies are intervening in such a fashion: China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Switzerland, and Taiwan. The currencies of these economies are substantially undervalued, and their current account surpluses are correspondingly excessive, pointing clearly to the desirability of currency revaluation by these countries. It would be very wrong for the G-20 to condemn all countries that are trying to prevent their exchange rates from appreciating. One needs to ask which currencies are undervalued and concentrate on preventing them from intervening and tightening capital controls.

The Current Currency Situation

The currency markets have been extremely disturbed for the last three months. The period witnessed a major strengthening of the US dollar in September, then the European currency crisis, a recovery of the euro when the markets believed that the crisis was being controlled, and then a rebound of the dollar. In view of these developments, those who follow currency movements need a new guide as to how the current values of currencies compare to our estimates of fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEERs). The first section is devoted to a brief exposition of the main changes that have occurred since April, which our previous publication used as the benchmark. The second section updates information on the levels of effective exchange rates consistent with the FEER targets identified in our most recent estimates (Cline and Williamson 2011), as well as the FEER-consistent dollar rates as of late October. The third section steps outside our normal frame of reference in order to make some comments about the situation within Europe in view of the sovereign debt crisis currently raging there.

Estimates of Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rates, May 2011

This policy brief updates Cline and Williamson's estimates of fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEERs) to April 2011. Most currencies appear to have been reasonably close to their FEERs in April 2011. The most important exceptions are China, on the weak side, and the United States, on the strong side. The countries that need to seek weaker effective rates are those with large current account deficits: Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Turkey, (marginally) Poland and Hungary, and the United States and Brazil. These are countries with floating exchange rates that have been pushed to an overvalued level by (in most cases) capital mobility and the carry trade, reinforced in the case of the United States by the dollar's role as the currency to which many other countries peg combined with the decision of some other countries to peg their rates at an undervalued level. The countries that need to revalue their effective rates are primarily Asian: China and countries that make it a priority to avoid losing competitiveness versus China (Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan). The authors' calculations show the need for a slightly larger effective revaluation of the Chinese currency, the renminbi, this year (17.6 percent) than last (15.3 percent) and a larger appreciation of the renminbi in terms of the dollar (28.5 percent rather than 24.2 percent).

New Estimates of Fundamental Equilibrium Exchange Rates

Cline and Williamson present estimates of the fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEERs) of leading advanced and emerging-market economies: The US dollar remains significantly overvalued against a number of Asian currencies, most prominently the Chinese renminbi and, to a lesser extent, the Japanese yen. The euro and the pound are overvalued on a multilateral basis but have not overshot greatly against the dollar; the depreciation in their multilateral exchange rates should come largely from the appreciations of a number of Asian currencies if it is to contribute positively to the adjustment process. The Asian currencies that should appreciate most are the Singapore dollar, the Chinese renminbi, the Malaysian ringgit, the New Taiwan dollar, and the Japanese yen. The authors estimate the misalignment of currencies in 30 economies and find the set of exchange rates against the dollar needed to correct all these misalignments simultaneously. The estimates of misalignments are based on a set of current account targets that do not in general exceed 3 percent of GDP, whether deficits or surpluses. Adjustments needed to reach these targets are translated into needed exchange rate realignments using Cline's symmetric matrix inversion method (SMIM) model. This model is explained in detail in Working Paper 08-6 by Cline.

Notes on Equilibrium Exchange Rates: January 2010

In this update of estimates of fundamental equilibrium exchange rates (FEERs) for 30 major economies, Cline and Williamson report on changes in disequilibria in exchange markets since March 2009, the date to which their earlier (June 2009) calculations referred. The overvaluation of the dollar has been sharply reduced from March to the end of 2009, from about 17 percent to about 6 percent. The remaining overvaluation of the dollar would be completely eliminated if the five East Asian economies with seriously undervalued exchange rates were to appreciate to FEER-consistent levels: China (which needs the most appreciation), Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Singapore. Cline and Williamson find that in the important case of the euro, whereas the currency was undervalued against the dollar by about 17 percent in March 2009, by end-December it had closed to about 7 percent below its FEER-consistent rate. Japan's bilateral undervaluation had also narrowed but only slightly. Several currencies have overshot from substantial undervaluation to overvaluation against the dollar, including those of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, Hungary, and Poland. These economies typically have high interest rates, and their substantial currency overshooting reflects the shift in the international financial environment from acute panic and safe-haven influences in early 2009 to carry-trade dynamics by the end of the year in the face of zero US short-term interest rates. Two key trade partners for the United States, Canada and Mexico, have both swung from modest undervaluation against the dollar to somewhat greater overvaluation. The authors conclude with a reestimation of the FEER-consistent dollar rate for one important currency, the Korean won, and conclude that its FEER-consistent rate is now about 1,000 won to the dollar.

Restoring economic growth in Argentina

The author reviews the debate on the causes of Argentina?s economic collapse in late 2001 and 2002 and examines the measures needed to help restore sustainable growth. Some analysts stress fiscal imbalances, others overvaluation of the peso under the convertibility plan, and others external shocks. Cline judges that all three contributed substantially, but that it was their inflammatory interaction with domestic political unraveling that forced the bad-equilibrium outcome. He reviews the nascent recovery since the second half of 2002 and the important success of avoiding hyperinflation. Looking forward, the author?s analysis underscores the importance of strengthening fiscal performance, in part by increasing relatively low collections of value added taxes. He stresses the need for reform of the system of revenue sharing with the provinces; the importance of strengthening the banking system, which was severely weakened by asymmetric conversion of assets and liabilities from dollars to pesos; and the need to arrive at equitable restructuring of utility tariffs to reestablish confidence of foreign direct investors in the rules of the game. Restructuring government debt is also central to restoring growth. A simple model indicates that a relatively ambitious target for the primary fiscal surplus and a restricted set of senior-status debt will be needed to limit the haircut on junior debt to amounts compatible with longer-term creditor perceptions of fairness. The author also considers the new dynamics of bargaining with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He judges that although conditionality is arguably appropriately less stringent as only rollover is involved, and despite the large outstanding debt to the IMF, there are limits to how lenient the Fund can and should be in key areas with potential for setting international precedents.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Stabilization

The Baker Plan : progress, shortcomings, and future

The Baker Plan essentially made existing strategy on the debt problem more concrete. Like existing policy, it rejected a bankruptcy approach to the problem. It assumed that the principal debtor countries could grow their way out of the debt problem and could expand their exports enough over time to reduce their debt burden to normal levels. It called for structural reform, and it continued the adjustment efforts in the debtor country in return for financial support from foreign official and bank creditors. The plan did shift emphasis, however: from short-term balance of payments stabilization to longer-term development objectives, and thus from the IMF to the World Bank as the lead institution in debt management. The basic international debt strategy remains valid, but intensified policy efforts are necessary. Banks should provide multiyear new money packages, exit bonds should be guaranteed to allow voluntary debt reduction by banks, and net capital flows to the highly indebted countries should be raised 15 billion dollars a year. Successful emergence from the debt crisis, however, will depend primarily on sound economic policies in the debtor countries themselves.Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Banks&Banking Reform