Book Reviews
Book Reviews Finance & Development, December 2016, Vol. 53, No. 4
The Long View Eswar S. Prasad
Gaining Currency: The Rise of the Renminbi
Oxford University Press, 2016, 344 pp, $29.95 (hardcover).
Such is the scope and range of Eswar Prasad’s new book Gaining Currency: The Rise of the Renminbi. In it, the author capitalizes on the current fascination with all things China to spin a yarn of how the renminbi rose to global prominence and the future challenges facing China as it evolves into a market-based economy that is fully integrated into the global system.
So far, China has forged a remarkable and unique path in making the renminbi a global currency. This becomes clear in Prasad’s description of how it eschewed the typical route of capital account liberalization and, instead, punched discrete and controlled holes in its capital controls to allow money to flow in and out. China’s unique path is again evident in the recent inclusion of the renminbi in the basket of currencies that make up the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights (SDRs); in China’s efforts to establish new institutions for international financial cooperation such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank; and in China’s expansion of political and economic interest through cross-border financial support. Finally, Prasad captures an even bigger picture of Chinese exceptionalism as he describes the country’s unprecedented attempt to implement a liberal, market-based economic system while preserving “one-party rule…[with] neither an open political system nor an independent judiciary.”
Prasad comprehensively guides us through the various twists and turns as China ascends to its place in the global system, one that corresponds with its economic size. He paints a picture of both missteps and successes from an administration in Beijing that takes the long view and shrewdly exploits opportunities to further China’s national interests. The book carefully cuts through the cloudy rhetoric of reform to pinpoint what is happening on the ground, beyond what is being written on paper.
One particular strength of the book is that Prasad takes the time to carefully walk the reader through the ideas of what it means to be a reserve currency, what the “internationalization” of the renminbi is, and how these concepts relate to capital account openness. Perhaps it is a reflection of my own nerdy economist predilections, but as Prasad traces out this path I would have appreciated a few more charts to...
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