Effect of China’s Real Exchange Rate Appreciation in the Next Decade: A Recursive Dynamic CGE Analysis

Abstract

Although the renminbi has appreciated over 30% against the US dollar since China launched exchange rate reform in the mid of 2005, the US Treasury Department still claims that the renminbi remains “significantly undervalued”. If that is true, how to adjust the currency effectively and rebalance the current account are challenges for the Chinese government. This paper explores the effect of alternative adjustments of China’s real exchange rate. Unlike previous simulation designs, this paper considers the formation mechanism of the real exchange rate. By assuming the same change in factor price during different periods and by using the recursive dynamic computable general equilibrium model, two different scenarios are simulated against the baseline. One scenario adjusts the macro-structural imbalance by decreasing the gross national savings rate in China, and the other adjusts the micro-structural imbalance by increasing the real wage rate of Chinese labor. The external imbalance is improved by both internal structural adjustments in the long term. The effect of macro-adjustment is more significant than the micro-adjustment. A real appreciation will be sufficient for China to improve its terms of trade and to change the export-oriented model into the demand-oriented model of development in the next decade.