中国收紧资本管制 遏制资本外流

China has tightened its capital controls, in a sharp reversal of its market liberalising rhetoric, as it struggles to contain the fallout from last month’s devaluation of the renminbi.

中国已采取措施收紧资本管制，此举标志着官方的市场自由化言论发生急剧逆转。目前中国正艰难围堵上月人民币贬值的余波。

The August 11 devaluation unleashed turmoil on global stock markets and policy confusion at home, forcing the central bank to spend as much as $200bn to support the renminbi. The prospect of an interest rate rise in the US has further encouraged capital flight.

8月11日的贬值引发全球股市动荡，并在国内造成政策困惑，迫使中国央行支出多达2000亿美元支持人民币。美国加息的前景进一步鼓励了资本外流。

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the unit of the central bank in charge of managing China’s currency, has in recent days ordered financial institutions to step up checks and strengthen controls on all foreign exchange transactions, according to people familiar with the matter and an official memo seen by the Financial Times.

根据几名知情人士的说法和英国《金融时报》看到的一份官方通知，隶属中国央行、负责管理中国外汇的国家外汇管理局(SAFE)近日责令各金融机构加强对所有外汇交易的检查和管制。

Safe has ordered banks and financial institutions to pay particular attention to the practice of over-invoicing exports, used to disguise large capital outflows. Safe confirmed the existence of the memo, but declined to comment further.

国家外管局责令银行和金融机构要特别留意高报出口的做法，这种做法被用来掩盖大笔资本外流。该局证实上述通知的存在，但拒绝进一步置评。

China has long imposed limits on the amount of foreign exchange that can be bought or sold by individuals and companies but those controls have broken down somewhat in recent years as the renminbi has become more widely used around the world.

中国长期对个人和企业可以购买或出售的外汇金额实行限制，但随着人民币在世界各地得到更为广泛的使用，这些管制近年在一定程度上失效。

Wang Tao, chief China economist at UBS, said the government had been expected to tighten some FX controls. But relying on them exclusively to protect the renminbi “will not be viable over the long term and hence is unlikely to be pursued by China’s central bank for long”, she added.

瑞银(UBS)首席中国经济学家汪涛表示，外界早就预期政府会收紧某些外汇管制。但她补充说，仅仅依赖这些管制来捍卫人民币“不是长久之计，因而中国央行不会长期实行这些管制”。

The policy reversal comes after China’s central bank drew heavily on its vast foreign exchange reserves to prevent the renminbi falling dramatically against the dollar in the wake of the technical devaluation last month. Although still the largest in the world, its reserves fell by the biggest amount on record in August, dropping $94bn to around $3.56tn.

这项政策逆转出台之前，中国央行大举动用其庞大的外汇储备，以防止上月技术性贬值后人民币兑美元汇率大幅下滑。虽然中国的外汇储备仍是全球最大的，但8月份出现有记录以来最大数额的缩水，减少940亿美元，至3.56万亿美元。

For the first time since it began internationalising its currency a few years ago, the central bank has also been intervening heavily in the offshore renminbi market to narrow the gap between the onshore (CNY) and offshore (CNH) exchange rates.

自几年前开始推动人民币国际化以来，中国央行还首次大举干预离岸人民币市场，以缩小在岸人民币(CNY)与离岸人民币(CNH)汇率之间的差距。

Analysts and people familiar with the matter say Beijing has spent up to $200bn defending the currency but the net impact on the reserves is disguised by fluctuating valuations of reserve assets and other inflows into the reserves.

分析师和知情人士透露，北京方面已投入多达2000亿美元捍卫人民币，但外汇储备所受的净影响被各种因素掩盖，包括储备资产的估值变动和流入储备的其他资金。

“They have gone from a credible peg that cost them almost nothing to a weak peg that nobody believes and that is costing them more than $10bn a day to defend — they’re paying huge sums for something they had for free just a few weeks ago,” said one person with close ties to China’s central bank.

“他们从一个几乎不用花钱的可信的盯住汇率，沦为一个没人相信的疲弱盯住汇率，每天要动用超过100亿美元捍卫——他们正为几周前还免费拥有的东西付出高额代价，”与中国央行关系密切的一位人士表示。