, Columnist
China Is Getting Ready for a World Without Trump
By removing two key crutches for the yuan, the central bank is preparing for a less volatile world.
What a long, strange trip it’s been.
Photographer: NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFPThis article is for subscribers only.
In less than a month, two unusual things happened at the People’s Bank of China.
First, it no longer required banks to set aside cash if clients wanted to short the yuan. This makes betting against the currency cheaper, and allows room for the yuan to weaken. Second, the PBOC removed the so-called counter-cyclical factor, one of the three elements used to determine its daily currency fix, which guides trading. These significant tools were set up in 2015 and 2017 to stem the yuan’s free fall.