January 18, 2012
China signs currency swap deal with UAE
China and the United Arab Emirates signed a multibillion-dollar currency swap deal in the latest indication of the growing political and economic links between Beijing and countries in the oil-rich Gulf region.
The swap valued at RMB35bn ($5.5bn), the latest in a string of currency deals China has agreed with foreign nations, is effective for three years and will allow the central banks to draw on the local currency facility to ease bilateral trading.
The announcement, which came as the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the UAE for the first time as part of a three country-tour of Gulf oil states, acts as both a political statement to bolster China’s ties to the UAE, and a pragmatic measure to increase business with the Gulf’s regional trade hub.
“It makes a good deal of commercial sense,” said Ben Simpfendorfer, managing director at Silk Road Associates, the Hong Kong-based consultancy. “At the same time there are some political interests.”
China has set up currency swap agreements with more than ten countries, though few have been drawn down, prompting some analysts to suggest that they are more politically-motivated statements than measures to significantly boost trade.
Boosting Sino-Emirati relations comes at a time when major international business deals are developing in the UAE and oil prices are crossing $100 a barrel.
Abu Dhabi, holder of 7 per cent of the world’s proven oil reserves, plans to tender its precious oil concessions due to expire in 2014. Analysts have said that eastern companies are likely to challenge western companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, BP and Total, who currently hold the contracts.
“It’s both a gesture and a genuine part of their policy,” said Theodore Karasik, director of research and development at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai. “China is making huge inroads into the region and partnering with the UAE across a number of fields, not only in economics but in energy and this is part of the process.”
Despite the economic downturn, bilateral trade between China and the UAE improved last year. Trade in the first 11 months of the year grew to $32bn, a 38 per cent increase compared to the first 11 months of last year, according to official statistics.
China has over the past three years started to promote the use of the renminbi in international trade, seeking to reduce its reliance on the US dollar. However, so far, transactions in Chinese currency have been limited, partly because China retains strict limits on flows of the currency across its borders.
Bhanu Baweja, emerging markets currency analyst at UBS in London says that utilising the swaps is a slow process but they do provide an initial step towards renminbi invoicing.
Mr Simpfendorfer said: “What they’re doing is putting the infrastructure in place, by saying ‘we don’t want liquidity to be the obstacle’.”
The UAE may be a particularly tough market in which to shift trading away from dollars, considering the local currency, like most others in the Gulf, is pegged to the greenback. The Abu Dhabi-based central bank said in November that it had returned to buying dollars after replacing their reserves with bonds including Japanese government debt.
“It does theoretically help the ability to do yuan transactions here,” says Nick Stadtmiller head of fixed income research at Dubai-based Emirates NBD. “So far the amount of yuan transactions taking place in the UAE has been pretty limited.”
China signs currency swap deal with UAE - FT.com