No yuan convertibility timetable: Central bank
(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2005-11-30 11:15

China has no specific timetable for making the yuan fully convertible and will consider the country's economic performance when deciding when to move, the central bank was quoted Tuesday as saying.

The People's Bank of China issued the statement in response to a question by the China Securities Journal, the newspaper said in an article.

Some domestic media earlier quoted central bank officials as saying China is aiming to make the yuan, also known as the renminbi, fully convertible during the country's 11th Five-Year Plan, ending in 2010.

The government revalued the yuan by 2.1 percent in July, but is still under pressure from the United States and others to allow the currency to appreciate further and make its rigid foreign exchange regime more open.

The central bank was quoted as saying in the statement that the July reform, which included dropping the currency's long-standing peg to the U.S. dollar, would help promote the opening of the yuan under the capital account.

"But timing for the renminbi's full convertibility will be decided first of all by levels of China's economic growth, its economic performance, international balance of payments and other reform steps," it said.

"The process must be gradually promoted, and at present, there is no timetable," it added.

The central bank said it was closely monitoring possible inflow of speculative funds betting on the yuan's further appreciation.

Fund inflows through trade credit, real estate, personal foreign exchange income and offshore capital accounts were the focus of the central bank's supervision, it said. Enditem