Oil and the yuan

Recently, two economic issues have attracted a great deal of attention worldwide: the possible revaluation of the yuan, and the sustained rise in global oil prices. But there have been few attempts to relate the two.

Since 2003, the global oil markets have seen radical changes, with oil prices continuing to hit record highs. The causes have been much debated: structural changes in the oil market? Cyclical changes? Futures speculation? Or geopolitical influence? Some have attributed the price spike to the “China factor”, for example, the conclusion by the US Energy Department saying the sharp increase of China’s oil imports constitutes one of the major reasons for the price hike in the world oil market.