China's central bank will raise FX risk reserves for forward dollar purchases to 20% from zero starting September 28, making it costlier to bet against the yuan. Spot yuan barely moved on the announcement, trading near 7.15 per dollar.
The measure raises the cost of yuan shorting and may slow depreciation, which modestly supports Chinese import buying power for dollar-priced feed commodities.
After 50 past bearish policy events, Chinese Yuan (CNY per USD) moved a median -0.1% over 5 sessions (46% higher; middle half -0.4% to +0.4%), and -0.0% over 20.
Moves of each commodity's benchmark from the last close before the event. Historical reads pool past events of the same kind; they describe what happened, not what will. Not investment advice.
The FX risk reserve ratio hike effective Sept 28 raised the cost of shorting the yuan via forwards, curbing depreciation bets with a lagged effect.
The FX risk reserve hike to 20% was meant to curb yuan shorts, but spot barely reacted, so it only limited the move at the margin.