RMB appreciation will not ease US troubles

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

Beijing, Nov.16 (People's Daily Online) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao made it clear when meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in Hawaii that the RMB exchange rate is not the cause of structural problems facing the United States, such as trade deficit and unemployment, and even if the RMB dramatically appreciates against the U.S. dollar, it will not address the problems.

In fact, the RMB exchange rate against the U.S. dollar has appreciated by about 30 percent since July 2005, while the unemployment rate in the United States has increased from 7 percent to 9 percent during the same period.

China's import growth rate has remained higher than its exports growth rate over recent years, with a month-on-month and year-on-year reduction in the trade surplus. China's current trade surplus accounts for only 1.4 percent of its GDP, which has already fallen to an internationally recognized rational level.

Customs statistics show that China's trade value was up 24 percent to about 3 trillion U.S. dollars in the first 10 months of 2011. Of them, exports value was up 22 percent to 1.55 trillion U.S. dollars and import value was up about 27 percent to 1.43 trillion U.S. dollars, marking a 15 percent drop in the trade surplus totaling 124 billion U.S. dollars.

The data has fully displayed that to achieve a balanced growth in foreign trade, China has accelerated the pace of adjusting its economic structure and striven to increase imports through boosting domestic demand amid the process of promoting the RMB exchange rate reform in a stable manner.