Inflationary real adjustment in China?
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Chinese inflation seems to be picking up.
That is a good thing. If China insists on holding the value of the RMB down -- and if the RMB's pace of appreciation against the dollar is slow, so the RMB in practice is depreciating against a host of currencies that are appreciating faster than the RMB is against the dollar -- the only way China's real exchange rate can adjust is through a rise in inflation.
Indeed, the biggest surprise coming out of China -- and there have been many -- is that rapid money growth hasn't, at least until now, generated much inflation. A DBS report (See Chart 1 on p. 2)shows that China has had Philippine style money growth over the past ten years without experiencing Philippine-style inflation. Indeed, the average inflation rate in China over the past ten years looks substantially lower than the average inflation rate in the US.
Even with inflation above 3%, China isn't appreciating all that rapidly in real terms. US and European inflation isn't that much lower.
If China only could experience a bit of Qatari-style inflation. Or a burst of Russian-style import growth. (see Danske Bank)
I am kidding. I generally don't think negative real rates are healthy, especially in rapidly-growing economies. I would rather see more nominal appreciation across the emerging world. But in countries whose real exchange rate is undervalued, rapid inflation is a logical consequence of resisting nominal appreciation.
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