Word: globalization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...extent, a global role for the yuan appears inevitable. How widely a currency is used around the world is usually a function of how important its home country is to the global economy. During the 19th century, when the British Empire reigned supreme, the pound was the top international currency. Since World War II, that role has been played by the dollar, with the U.S. having by far the world's biggest economy. Now that China is rapidly charging up the list - it currently ranks third and could overtake Japan as No. 2 as soon as next year - there...
...There are signs, though, that Beijing may be slowly changing its policy toward the yuan in ways that could, over time, lead to its greater use on a global scale. Most notably, China and Hong Kong launched a pilot program this month through which Hong Kong banks can begin settling cross-border trade transactions in yuan for selected Chinese companies. This step will likely increase the use of yuan in Hong Kong, one of the world's premier financial centers. (The program also solidifies Hong Kong's role as China's chief financial hub.) This step follows a series...
...China's motivations to boost the global standing of the yuan stem from the same concerns as its calls for a new reserve currency. Greater use of the yuan in trade would improve the competitiveness of Chinese exporters by reducing transaction costs and currency risks. By internationalizing the yuan, says HSBC's Qu, China can also begin extricating itself from the "dollar trap," in which the country, through its trade, amasses giant surpluses of dollars, which forces it to invest in dollar assets. This is why China, which holds $805 billion in U.S. Treasury securities, is the U.S.'s largest...
...traded currency would mean losing control over its value and flows of capital in and out of the country. This is a step Beijing's economic policymakers remain fearful of taking, since they still feel the need to protect China's developing domestic financial sector from shifts in the global economy. China sees its controlled currency as a "dam surrounding a reservoir, and the government doesn't know what would happen if it blew up the dam," says David Li, an economist at Tsinghua University in Beijing. "Would water flood out because the level inside the dam is higher than...
...cars haven't exactly taken the world by storm. Reva - which has received venture capital from Draper Fisher Jurveston, the Global Environment Fund and Mellon HBV Master Global Event Drive Fund - has sold only 3,000 cars over the past eight years. Half of those have been exported to Europe, mainly to London...