One-off yuan appreciation cannot be excluded

不排除人民幣一次性升值可能性

China may gradually loosen controls on the yuan's exchange rate, and a one-off yuan appreciation cannot be excluded, Chinese central bank advisor Xia Bin said Tuesday, giving no hint at a timeframe for the policy moves.

"We need to gradually appreciate [the yuan]. The RMB's floating band may be slowly widened…but the widening of the band must be slow, while the pace of [the yuan's] adjustment may be moderately accelerated," Xia said in an online Q&A session on Sina's microblogging service.

Still, any revaluation of the currency must be measured, Xia said.

"Under the current situation, if the yuan appreciates too quickly, it could negatively impact China's economic and social stability," Xia said. "In the long run, however, a gradual appreciation is a must, unless we don't want to develop the Chinese economy or internationalize the renminbi," Xia noted.

China reformed the yuan exchange rate regime on July 21, 2005, ending its policy of pegging the yuan to the U.S. dollar. The country announced plans to further reform the exchange rate mechanism last June. Since then, the yuan has appreciated 4.37 percent against the US dollar.

央行貨幣政策委員會委員夏斌4月19日表示，匯率浮動區間要擴大，也不排除一次性升值的情況。

夏斌在回答新浪微博網友問題時表示，“我們要逐步的升值，人民幣浮動區間可能從現在慢慢放大……但是這個浮動有一個慢慢浮動區間放大，然后調整頻率可能適當加快。”

“我想也不排除一次性升值的情況。”夏斌表示。

“在目前的情況下，升值過快，不利于中國經濟和社會穩定。但從長期來看，逐步的升值是必須的，除非我們的經濟不崛起，人民幣不想走出去，不想國際化。”夏斌說道。

2005年7月21日，中國對其人民幣匯率制度進行改革，人民幣匯率不再盯住單一美元。去年6月，央行決定進一步推進人民幣匯率形成機制改革。那以后，人民幣對美元升值4.37%。