PBOC: China's Trade Shows Marked Structural Shift with Reduced Sensitivity to Exchange Rate Fluctuations

36Kr reports that the People's Bank of China (PBOC) stated in its policy stance on the RMB exchange rate that a key structural change in China's trade over recent years is a significant decline in sensitivity to exchange rate movements. From a trade structure perspective, China's export composition has upgraded and transformed, shifting from low-end labor-intensive products to mid-to-high-end and diversified goods. Over the past five years, imports and exports of high-tech products grew at an average annual rate of 7.9%, with year-on-year growth further rising to 11.4% in 2025, contributing nearly 60% to overall foreign trade growth. Chinese exporters are no longer mere price takers but are embedded in global supply chains, sharing exchange rate costs with upstream and downstream partners. Regarding financial services related to trade, foreign trade enterprises increasingly use hedging instruments against exchange rate risks; approximately 30% of trade is settled in RMB, and the proportion of corporate foreign exchange hedging has also reached around 30%, further reducing sensitivity to exchange rate fluctuations. These proportions are expected to rise further in the future.