Central Banks

China’s Yuan Devaluation: The Aftermath [Chart]

Published

8 years ago

August 14, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

China's Yuan Devaluation: The Aftermath [Chart]

China’s Yuan Devaluation: The Aftermath [Chart]

Oil and copper get decimated; Euro an unlikely winner

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

Sometimes it feels like the market is one giant ant farm. Investors and traders build all of their little tunnels, and then all of a sudden someone shakes the ant farm causing impending chaos for the hapless ant denizens.

In this case, it was the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) that shook the ant farm – and they did it multiple times this week.

It all started early Tuesday morning as China moved the midpoint of the yuan’s peg by 1.9%, the biggest move since 1994. The PBOC called this change a “one-time adjustment” and said its fixing will now become more aligned with supply and demand. They then proceeded to devalue the yuan two other times throughout the week for a combined 4.4% decrease in value. The Chinese central bank now claims that the yuan will move more according to market forces, which is necessary to get included into the International Monetary Fund’s basket of currency known as Special Drawing Rights (SDR).

We most recently warned about the inevitability of such central bank moves about a month ago, when the Bank of Canada decreased its benchmark rate for the second time in six months. However, it wasn’t until these moves by the PBOC that the market really felt uneasy, and the term “currency war” entered back into the public vernacular.

Investors are clearly shaken up, as all sorts of trading went haywire in the aftermath of the yuan devaluation. Some currencies, like the Canadian dollar, tanked early and then bounced back to take some gains against the USD. The euro fell initially and then bounced back in a big way, gaining 1.8% in the week’s trading. It’s now trading at eight-week highs.

Countries that are inextricably linked to China by regional trade, such as Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand, all had their currencies fall as well. Some emerging markets were also affected strongly, with the Indian rupee dropping -2.3% through the course of the week against the USD.

However, the biggest impact was to commodity prices. A lower yuan means imports are more costly and creates incentive to buy from domestic Chinese producers of base metals and energy. The devaluation was also interpreted by traders as an admission by the Chinese government that the economy is weak, and this helped copper and oil (WTI) tumble. Copper is at its lowest price ($2.35/lb) since the tail-end of the Financial Crisis, and WTI oil continued its worst summer in trading history to end up in a similar position at $42.35/bbl.

Gold is up on the week by about 1%, but it is also bouncing off of its lowest price since 2010.

Related Topics:currency wars yuan devaluation renminbi china copper oil

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Central Banks

Charted: Public Trust in the Federal Reserve

Public trust in the Federal Reserve chair has hit its lowest point in 20 years. Get the details in this infographic.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 23, 2023

Marcus Lu

The Briefing

Gallup conducts an annual poll to gauge the U.S. public’s trust in the Federal Reserve
After rising during the COVID-19 pandemic, public trust has fallen to a 20-year low

Charted: Public Trust in the Federal Reserve

Each year, Gallup conducts a survey of American adults on various economic topics, including the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve.

More specifically, respondents are asked how much confidence they have in the current Fed chairman to do or recommend the right thing for the U.S. economy. We’ve visualized these results from 2001 to 2023 to see how confidence levels have changed over time.

Methodology and Results

The data used in this infographic is also listed in the table below. Percentages reflect the share of respondents that have either a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence.

Year	Fed chair	% Great deal or Fair amount
2023	Jerome Powell	36%
2022	Jerome Powell	43%
2021	Jerome Powell	55%
2020	Jerome Powell	58%
2019	Jerome Powell	50%
2018	Jerome Powell	45%
2017	Janet Yellen	45%
2016	Janet Yellen	38%
2015	Janet Yellen	42%
2014	Janet Yellen	37%
2013	Ben Bernanke	42%
2012	Ben Bernanke	39%
2011	Ben Bernanke	41%
2010	Ben Bernanke	44%
2009	Ben Bernanke	49%
2008	Ben Bernanke	47%
2007	Ben Bernanke	50%
2006	Ben Bernanke	41%
2005	Alan Greenspan	56%
2004	Alan Greenspan	61%
2003	Alan Greenspan	65%
2002	Alan Greenspan	69%
2001	Alan Greenspan	74%

Data for 2023 collected April 3-25, with this statement put to respondents: “Please tell me how much confidence you have [in the Fed chair] to recommend the right thing for the economy.”

We can see that trust in the Federal Reserve has fluctuated significantly in recent years.

For example, under Alan Greenspan, trust was initially high due to the relative stability of the economy. The burst of the dotcom bubble—which some attribute to Greenspan’s easy credit policies—resulted in a sharp decline.

On the flip side, public confidence spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was likely due to Jerome Powell’s decisive actions to provide support to the U.S. economy throughout the crisis.

Measures implemented by the Fed include bringing interest rates to near zero, quantitative easing (buying government bonds with newly-printed money), and emergency lending programs to businesses.

Confidence Now on the Decline

After peaking at 58%, those with a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in the Fed chair have tumbled to 36%, the lowest number in 20 years.

This is likely due to Powell’s hard stance on fighting post-pandemic inflation, which has involved raising interest rates at an incredible speed. While these rate hikes may be necessary, they also have many adverse effects:

Negative impact on the stock market
Increases the burden for those with variable-rate debts
Makes mortgages and home buying less affordable

Higher rates have also prompted many U.S. tech companies to shrink their workforces, and have been a factor in the regional banking crisis, including the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

Where does this data come from?

Source: Gallup (2023)

Data Notes: Results are based on telephone interviews conducted April 3-25, 2023, with a random sample of –1,013—adults, ages 18+, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on this sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. See source for details.