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BEIJING, Aug. 11-- Since China launched a market-oriented RMB exchange rate reform four years ago, the reform progress has been recognized by the global community, except for the United States, sadly. On August 11, 2017, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced a major improvement to the formation of the RMB's central parity rate against the U.S. dollar. It makes the central parity rate more consistent with the needs of market development. It was a continuation of the previous rounds of such reforms, also an implementation of Chinese central authority's pledge to steadily advance the exchange rate marketization reform and accelerate the RMB convertibility under the capital account. Four years on, the RMB's exchange rate has been able to rise and fall in two-way directions, while normal intervention by the central bank has withdrawn from the foreign exchange market. China's headway has been recognized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which concluded in its latest report that China's exchange rate is broadly in line with fundamentals. But a few days before the IMF released the report, the U.S. government unilaterally and bluntly named China as a currency manipulator, ignoring the conspicuous progress China has made in exchange rate reform. However, the IMF does not endorse the U.S. label of currency manipulator for China. Its report makes clear that there has been absolutely no currency manipulation and that China's external balance has been appropriate. | 
