Stephen Jen Quoted in Bloomberg: “Stephen Jen Sees Chinese Yuan Rallying by Record 9% This Year”
Heng Xie, Bloomberg, April 20, 2026
In a recent article for Bloomberg, Heng Xie examines Stephen Jen’s view that China may allow a stronger yuan this year as part of a broader effort to reinforce confidence in the currency and support Chinese companies’ purchasing power overseas.
The article notes that Stephen, CIO of Eurizon SLJ Capital, sees the yuan strengthening to between 6.2 and 6.4 per dollar by year-end, which would represent a significant appreciation from current levels. The piece frames this as a bold call, given that the People’s Bank of China has continued to manage the pace of yuan gains through its daily fixing.
Stephen argues that a stronger currency would better reflect China’s economic position and could support the country’s long-term ambitions:
“What’s the point of ‘getting rich by being poor’?” Jen said. “If China is ever to claim the title of the biggest economy in the world, which would be measured in dollars, it would never get there through a weak-currency strategy.”
The article also links Stephen’s yuan outlook to his work on China’s large stock of overseas dollar holdings. He notes that allowing the yuan to appreciate could encourage exporters to repatriate capital, although the process would need to be managed carefully:
“This creates an ‘avalanche risk,’ whereby a weak RMB discourages repatriation, but increases the risks of a sudden repatriation, when the RMB is finally allowed to appreciate,” according to Jen. “They need to accelerate the pace of RMB appreciation to encourage some repatriation of capital, but not so fast as to trigger a stampede.”
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