IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/intfin/v23y2020i2p215-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Safehavenness of the Chinese renminbi

Author

Listed:
  • Tom Pak Wing Fong
  • Alfred Yun Tong Wong

Abstract

This paper investigates how safe (or risky) the Chinese renminbi is as an international currency from the perspectives of dollar‐ and euro‐based investors. It estimates the “safehavenness” of the currency, defined as the extent to which the currency plays the role of a safe haven, in both its onshore and offshore markets alongside 20 most‐traded currencies in the world, including those in the special drawings rights (SDR) basket. We find that the Chinese renminbi has generally registered a high level of safehavenness among the most‐traded currencies since it became actively traded in the offshore market. Compared with the other SDR currencies, it consistently ranks below the Japanese yen and U.S. dollar but above the British pound and euro on the scale of safehavenness. Despite market fragmentation, the safehavenness of the Chinese renminbi onshore (CNY) is very similar to, albeit marginally lower, that of the Chinese renminbi offshore (CNH), attributable possibly to a stronger price discovery process in the latter market. These estimation results show striking consistency between dollar‐ and euro‐based investors in their assessment across various time periods characterized by major structural differences.

Suggested Citation

  • Tom Pak Wing Fong & Alfred Yun Tong Wong, 2020. "Safehavenness of the Chinese renminbi," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 215-233, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:intfin:v:23:y:2020:i:2:p:215-233
    DOI: 10.1111/infi.12360
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/infi.12360
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/infi.12360?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maurice Obstfeld, 2012. "Does the Current Account Still Matter?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(3), pages 1-23, May.
    2. Forbes, Kristin J. & Warnock, Francis E., 2012. "Capital flow waves: Surges, stops, flight, and retrenchment," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 235-251.
    3. Yin-Wong Cheung & Cho-Hoi Hui & Andrew Tsang, 2016. "The Renminbi Central Parity: An Empirical Investigation," CESifo Working Paper Series 5963, CESifo.
    4. Christian Thimann, 2010. "Global Roles of Currencies," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Wensheng Peng & Chang Shu (ed.), Currency Internationalization: Global Experiences and Implications for the Renminbi, chapter 1, pages 3-41, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    6. Fatum, Rasmus & Yamamoto, Yohei & Zhu, Guozhong, 2017. "Is the Renminbi a safe haven?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 189-202.
    7. Robert N McCauley & Patrick McGuire, 2009. "Dollar appreciation in 2008: safe haven, carry trades, dollar shortage and overhedging," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    8. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Stefan Nagel & Lasse H. Pedersen, 2009. "Carry Trades and Currency Crashes," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2008, Volume 23, pages 313-347, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Kaul, Aditya & Sapp, Stephen, 2006. "Y2K fears and safe haven trading of the U.S. dollar," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 760-779, August.
    10. Rey, Hélène, 2015. "Dilemma not Trilemma: The Global Financial Cycle and Monetary Policy Independence," CEPR Discussion Papers 10591, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas & Maurice Obstfeld, 2012. "Stories of the Twentieth Century for the Twenty-First," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(1), pages 226-265, January.
    12. Angelo Ranaldo & Paul Söderlind, 2010. "Safe Haven Currencies," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 14(3), pages 385-407.
    13. Obstfeld, Maurice, 2012. "Financial flows, financial crises, and global imbalances," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(3), pages 469-480.
    14. Howard D. Bondell & Brian J. Reich & Huixia Wang, 2010. "Noncrossing quantile regression curve estimation," Biometrika, Biometrika Trust, vol. 97(4), pages 825-838.
    15. Wong, Alfred Y-T. & Fong, Tom Pak Wing, 2011. "Analysing interconnectivity among economies," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 432-442.
    16. repec:bla:pacecr:v:23:y:2018:i:2:p:164-183 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Froot, Kenneth A & Thaler, Richard H, 1990. "Foreign Exchange," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 4(3), pages 179-192, Summer.
    18. Fong, Tom Pak Wing & Wong, Alfred Y-T., 2012. "Gauging potential sovereign risk contagion in Europe," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 115(3), pages 496-499.
    19. Habib, Maurizio M. & Stracca, Livio, 2012. "Getting beyond carry trade: What makes a safe haven currency?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 50-64.
    20. Hui, Cho-Hoi & Chung, Tsz-Kin, 2011. "Crash risk of the euro in the sovereign debt crisis of 2009-2010," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2945-2955, November.
    21. Jun Pan & Kenneth J. Singleton, 2008. "Default and Recovery Implicit in the Term Structure of Sovereign CDS Spreads," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2345-2384, October.
    22. Cheung, Yin-Wong & Hui, Cho-Hoi & Tsang, Andrew, 2018. "The RMB central parity formation mechanism: August 2015 to December 2016," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 223-243.
    23. Marion Kohler, 2010. "Exchange rates during financial crises," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, March.
    24. Cumby, Robert E., 1988. "Is it risk? : Explaining deviations from uncovered interest parity," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 279-299, September.
    25. Alfred Y.-T. Wong & Tom Pak Wing Fong, 2018. "Safehavenness of currencies," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 300-332, March.
    26. Claudio Borio & Piti Disyatat, 2011. "Global imbalances and the financial crisis: Link or no link?," BIS Working Papers 346, Bank for International Settlements.
    27. James W. Taylor & Derek W. Bunn, 1999. "A Quantile Regression Approach to Generating Prediction Intervals," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(2), pages 225-237, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dunbar, Kwamie, 2023. "CBDC uncertainty: Financial market implications," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. Cheung, Yin-Wong & Hui, Cho-Hoi & Tsang, Andrew, 2018. "The RMB central parity formation mechanism: August 2015 to December 2016," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 223-243.
    3. Wang, Yizhi & Lucey, Brian M. & Vigne, Samuel A. & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2022. "The Effects of Central Bank Digital Currencies News on Financial Markets," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Goldberg, Linda S. & Krogstrup, Signe, 2023. "International capital flow pressures and global factors," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    2. Virginie Coudert & Cyriac Guillaumin & Hélène Raymond, 2014. "Looking at the other side of carry trades: Are there any safe haven currencies?," EconomiX Working Papers 2014-13, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    3. Wu, Chih-Chiang & Wu, Chang-Che, 2017. "The asymmetry in carry trade and the U.S. dollar," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 304-313.
    4. Tachibana, Minoru, 2018. "Safe-haven and hedge currencies for the US, UK, and Euro area stock markets: A copula-based approach," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 82-96.
    5. Coudert, Virginie & Mignon, Valérie, 2013. "The “forward premium puzzle” and the sovereign default risk," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 491-511.
    6. Kim, Young Min & Lee, Seojin, 2023. "Spillover shifts in the FX market: Implication for the behavior of a safe haven currency," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    7. Habib, Maurizio M. & Stracca, Livio, 2012. "Getting beyond carry trade: What makes a safe haven currency?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 50-64.
    8. Hui, Cho-Hoi & Fong, Tom Pak-Wing, 2015. "Price cointegration between sovereign CDS and currency option markets in the financial crises of 2007–2013," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 174-190.
    9. Fernando Eguren-Martin & Andrej Sokol, 2022. "Attention to the Tail(s): Global Financial Conditions and Exchange Rate Risks," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 70(3), pages 487-519, September.
    10. Ashima Goyal & Rajeswari Sengupta & Akhilesh Verma, 2019. "External debt financing and macroeconomic instability in emerging market economies," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2019-013, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    11. Sato, Ayano & Nakata, Hayato & Percy, Jay, 2024. "Time-variant safe haven currencies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 316-328.
    12. Cho, Dooyeon & Han, Heejoon, 2021. "The tail behavior of safe haven currencies: A cross-quantilogram analysis," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    13. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95, October –.
    14. Milcheva, Stanimira & Zhu, Bing, 2016. "Bank integration and co-movements across housing markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(S), pages 148-171.
    15. Alfred Wong & Tom Fong, 2013. "Gauging the Safehavenness of Currencies," Working Papers 132013, Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research.
    16. Janani Sri S. & Parthajit Kayal & G. Balasubramanian, 2022. "Can Equity be Safe-haven for Investment?," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 21(1), pages 32-63, March.
    17. Brunnermeier, Markus & De Gregorio, José & Eichengreen, Barry & El-Erian, Mohamed & Fraga, Arminio & Ito, Takatoshi & Lane, Philip R. & Pisani-Ferry, Jean & Prasad, Eswar & Rajan, Raghuram & Ramos, Ma, 2012. "Banks and cross-border capital flows: challenges and regulatory responses," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102439, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Kim, Bong-Han & Kim, Hyeongwoo & Min, Hong-Ghi, 2013. "Reassessing the link between the Japanese yen and emerging Asian currencies," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 306-326.
    19. Hossfeld, Oliver & Pramor, Marcus, 2018. "Global liquidity and exchange market pressure in emerging market economies," Discussion Papers 05/2018, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    20. Virginie Coudert & Hélène Raymond-Feingold, 2011. "Gold and financial assets: Are there any safe havens in bear markets?," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(2), pages 1613-1622.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:intfin:v:23:y:2020:i:2:p:215-233. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1367-0271 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.