On December 22, 2022, the Macro-Finance Salon (No. 199) was held online. This event was co-hosted by the International Monetary Institute (IMI) and the Department of Monetary Finance, School of Finance, Renmin University of China (RUC). He Qing, Deputy Director of the Department of Monetary Finance, School of Finance, Renmin University of China (RUC), delivered a keynote speech on “The Safe-haven Attribute of Renminbi: Recent Trends and Basic Features”. The seminar was joined by Chen Weidong, President of BOC Research Institute, Ding Jianping, Deputy Director of Shanghai Institute of International Finance Center, Zhang Ming, Vice President of Institute of Finance and Banking, Chinese Academy of Social Science. The salon was moderated by Qu Qiang, Director Assistant and Research Fellow of IMI.

He Qing discussed the trend, features, influencing factors and policy suggestions concerning RMB’s safe-haven property. There are two recent trends and basic features. First, the safe-haven property of RMB assets is becoming increasingly prominent. Second, the aggressive interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve puts short-term pressure on the RMB, leading to a trend of depreciation. There are five important factors affecting the safe-haven property of RMB: rapid recovery of the real economy, moderate and stable foreign exchange reserves, large scale RMB allocation assets with reasonable returns, moderate and feasible financial opening measures, and the minimized spread between CNY and CNH are all conducive to the improvement of the safe-haven property of RMB. On further promoting RMB to be a safe-haven currency, Professor He proposed three policy suggestions. First, promote high-quality development of national economy and maintain stable and appropriate foreign exchange reserves; Second, boost the capital market, expand the size of the market and prudently open up the capital account; Third, facilitate the integration of CNY and CNH, and steadily promote the internationalization of RMB.