China, Australia mulling direct currency trading

Nice to see my country and China grow some and try to stab the world's reserve currency in the back.

From ChinaDaily.com

Original source

BEIJING - Chinese and Australian central banks are considering launching to launch direct trading between the yuan and the Australian dollar, China's central bank governor said Sunday.

If the deal is reached, the Australian dollar would be the third major currency allowed to be traded directly against the Chinese currency, following the US dollar and the Japanese yen.

Other major currencies that have been used as intermediaries for the China-Australia currency trading are sometimes unstable, said Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China.

The bilateral trade, investment and tourism relations between China and Australia have developed rapidly in past years, resulting in growing demand for the direct currency trading, Zhou told reporters at a group interview on the sidelines of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

The Chinese and Australian central banks support the direct trading, said Zhou, adding that such a direct trading would be "a good thing, a matter of course and a choice that respects the market."

China announced in May the direct trading of its currency against the Japanese yen, bringing the yuan one step closer to a truly global currency.

China has been taking steps to internationalize the yuan, facilitating the use of the yuan in cross-border trading and investment, and signing currency swap agreements worth at least 1.5 trillion yuan ($238 billion) with a dozen of countries.

CrossTalk - Fiscal Agony

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What is Obama going to do with the fiscal cliff? Or will he just continue kicking the can down the road? Neither political party has changed its position on taxes. Obama made a promise to the middle class not to raise their taxes. That leaves the rich. Does he now have a mandate to get what he wants CrossTalking with Mark Levine, Edward Harrison and Anthony Randazzo.

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Inside Story - China: Dying from the one child policy

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World's most populous nation may review birthing policy after societal imbalances places strain on younger generation. How will China and other countries deal with this inevitable challenge of an ageing population? Tony Harris speaks to Andrew Leung, Hafiz Khan and Yong Cai.

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As mentioned in this video rampant inflation is a serious issue in China as it is in India. Again gold can help protect savings against inflation in CNY just as well as it does in INR.

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Indian Inflation Climbs Again

NEW DELHI (Reuters)

Original source

India's headline inflation likely accelerated to an 11-month high in October on costlier fuel and food, a headache for the government in a battle with the central bank over spending and high interest rates ahead of state elections.

Wholesale prices - India's main inflation gauge - rose an annual 7.96 percent, according to a Reuters poll of economists, faster than the 7.81 percent reported in September.

Headline inflation has averaged close to 9 percent since January 2011.

The government will release the data at around 0630 GMT (1.30 a.m EDT) on Wednesday.

With the economy on track to post its slowest growth in a decade, the government is pressing the central bank to join efforts to revive activity ahead of a general election due in just over a year and several state polls before that. Election-related spending could put additional upward pressure on prices next year.

But the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has thus far rebuffed those calls, saying prices are still rising too fast to risk loosening policy much. The bank says rising rural wages, a result of government policies, are stoking inflation.

The next monetary policy review is due in December. The central bank has said any interest rate cut is "highly improbable" at that meeting, since it expects price pressures to remain elevated following a hike in the price of heavily subsidized diesel in September.

Read more

Hopefully Indian families were saving in gold, because if they did they would have beaten the inflation rate by over 5%. And a real rate of return of 5% is an excellent return in these uncertain times. 

Comparing Safe Havens

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