Studies On China’s Capital Account Liberalization In Perspective Of RMB Internationalizaion

Since2008, China has carried out cross-border RMB trade settlement. Pilot cities approved by government have signed currency swap agreement with neighbor countries, which takes a significant step for RMB internationalization. In recent years, China has increased the number of pilot cities and the size of currency swap agreement.As RMB is increasingly used as the settlement currency for cross border trade, offshore RMB has grown. Foreign economic bodies with RMB want to preserve or increase its value by investing activity, which requires relevant system arrangement in domestic financial market. However, there is no way that RMB can recycle because of capital account regulations, which limits the cross-border usage of RMB, making RMB less useful in global financial market. RMB internationalization is more limited to capital account control than ever and requests further opening up in the near future.Capital account liberalization can stimulate RMB internationalization. Meanwhile, it is also significant to the reform of financial system and economic growth. Chinese government makes it very clear that we must stick to capital account liberalization. However, issues such as how to open the account and problems we may come across during the process should still be taken into consideration. Although the work of capital account opening-up has been improved in recent years, China is still among the lowest rank. If there is an organic cooperation between capital account liberalization and RMB internationalization, we can both benefit from capital account liberalization and avoid its risks of currency and term mismatch. Therefore, this paper, from a perspective of RMB internationalization, discusses return and risk and the status of capital account liberalization, draw lessons from other countries and put forward proposals adapted to our nation.Based on the definition of capital account given by IMF and domestic scholars’ understanding, the paper firstly makes clear the definition of capital account liberalization. Then, it discusses advantages and disadvantages of capital account liberalization in terms of monetary crisis and banking crisis. The relation between capital account liberalization and RMB internationalization is discussed as well. After that, the paper clarifies China’s capital account liberalization progress and the existing capital control. After that, freedom of China’s capital account has been evaluated based on statistics from Fraser Institute and the Heritage Foundation. The paper then points out its influence on RMB internationalization.In the next part, the paper summarizes progress and experience of capital account liberalization in other countries. For developed countries, Japan and UK are taken as example of progressive and radical liberalization. For developing countries, I select India which shares similar economic development with China and Brazil whose capital account opens most in BRICS.Finally, the paper comes up with several strategic and political suggestions for China’s capital account liberalization. It points out that the liberalization process should take on a gradual and prudent step and cooperate with RMB internationalization process. Moreover, the paper puts forward a few proposals such as enhancement of financial supervision system, deepening reform of financial system and the construction of offshore financial center and international financial center.