Agenda for the future: Be proactive

Policymaking in China is often more reactive than proactive, but when short-term reactions are consistent with long-term goals, the motivation doesn't really matter.

In the first four months of the year, foreign currency inflows grew 556 percent year-on-year to a whopping 1.5 trillion yuan ($244 billion). While the previous government dealt with excess inflows and their inflationary impact through sterilization and strict administrative controls, the new government, led by Premier Li Keqiang, took the opposite approach, proposing a relaxation of controls on outflows. Among the new measures proposed were allowing individuals to settle trade in yuan and permitting them to invest overseas under an expansion of the qualified domestic institutional investor scheme.

Once inflows slowed from May. In July, authorities approved an expansion of quotas for foreign investment in the domestic market.