Job Discussion Forums

[bish]

Since I was last in China the value of the British pound has plummeted, making coming back to China more attractrive to me (as I have small UK bills to pay each month). Althought the wages in China are not great if they and the value of the Yen stay as they are then coming back is fine with me as I am sure I can find extra work too (I always have done in the past).

I am not an economist by any stretch of the imagination so I am wondering if anyone has any ideas as to if the value of the RMB is likely to remain the same for the forseeable future, or crash as the Won has done in Korea?

[wulfrun]

i'd be interested in answers to this too - the 10RMB/�1 exchange rate is attractive. apparently the chinese economy is going to take a significant knock in 2009; don't know how exactly this bodes for the CNY/GBP exchange rate (as i'm not an economist either...).

[william wallace]

Interesting, and the RMB is quite high against the US and Canadian dollar as well.

[Ms Bean]

How about this link?

http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Presently:

1.00 GBP= 10.4857 CNY

1.00 USD = 6.84800 CNY

[Mister Al]

I'm no economist either but as I understand it the RMB is does not float in the money markets in the same way the USD/GBP/Euro/JY etc does, so it's more to do with the strength/weakness of the GPB rather than the value of the RMB. The Chinese government will decide whether to devalue the RMB or not. I'm open to corrections on all this though.

[wulfrun]

[randyj]

As far as the RMB is concerned, I think the Chinese government decides in what narrow range their currency is allowed to float. I mean narrow. In the current economic environment, I do not believe they are interested in allowing the RMB to become more dear. Henry Paulson did convince them to allow a gradual depreciation against the US dollar during the last two years, but that trend is not going to continue.

[Ms Bean]

[wulfrun]

[lpm782]

Just a few corrections:

1. The Chinese currency was pegged to the US dollar until some time in about 2005. From there, they started doing gradual revaluations;

2. The currency moves *approximately* with the US dollar. (This is as opposed to the Hong Kong dollar, which has been anchored by the US dollar at the same rate for the past 26 years.)

3. Many thousands of factories have been closing in these areas around Guangdong. A big revaluation is not likely.

4. Salaries for EFL teachers are something like 6,000RMB per month. If the RMB is 6.85, that works out to about US$875 per month. If it is 6, then that works out to $1,000. So, that is $125 more. Not that much to write home about-- especially since you can't save too much more than 50% of your salary after visa expenses/ etc.

[Ms Bean]

Check the exchange rate for both the GBP AND the RMB for the dollar over the past five years. You will see significant change in value.

The GBP has dropped a bit over the past year, but its value has remained high relative to the dollar.

And I'd say that the 33% increase in value of the rmb relative to the dollar during the past two years to be quite significant. No, a great revaluation on the part of the Chinese government isn't likely. It wants its currency to be low in value to make its products competitive on the world market. At this point, it might be a good idea for China to begin to take advantage of its buying power and to try to acquire international companies again. It attempted to acquire IBM as well as a foreign oil company but failed. It could try to acquire exploration companies again. It might be more successful at this point in the general downturn in the world economy.

[bendan]

[Ms Bean]

Mea culpa. It comes out to 20.9%.

Geez, I should go to work for a bank.

[arioch36]

Madeoff , the guy who fleeced 50 billion plus, why haven't i seen any headlines that say "Madeoff Made Off with 50 billion"