The Onshore-Offshore Exchange Rate Differential, Interest Rate Spreads, and Internationalization: Evidence from the Hong Kong Offshore Renminbi Market

This article investigates the linkages among the onshore-offshore exchange rate differential, interest rate spreads, and Hong Kong's RMB deposits (a proxy for RMB internationalization), based on a structural vector autoregression model. We find that this differential and the spreads have significant effects on Hong Kong's RMB deposits, but the rise in the spreads will lead to a decline in offshore RMB deposits in Hong Kong. The differential is a stronger factor than spread shocks in explaining fluctuations in Hong Kong's RMB deposits. Moreover, an analysis of sources of the divergence in the differential and spreads finds several economic variables that are the significant and main factors.