The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday changed its long-held view that China's currency is undervalued, a key criticism aimed at Beijing in recent years. "While undervaluation of the renminbi [yuan] was a major factor causing the large imbalances in the past, our assessment now is that the substantial real effective appreciation over the past year has brought the exchange rate to a level that is no longer undervalued," said Markus Rodlauer, the IMF's Asia and Pacific deputy director. China has been criticized for many years and as recently as last month by the U.S. for keeping the value of its currency artificially low in order to make Chinese exports more competitive. Rodlauer said in April that the yuan was close to no longer being undervalued. The yuan has climbed 33 percent in value in the past five years in real effective exchange rate terms, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
