The progress that is being made is very tangible indeed: only yesterday, for example, the People’s Bank of China published rules that permit yuan interest rate swaps. Such reforms are welcome not only because they can help the financial system to adapt to the new environment, but also because China’s substantial current account surpluses partly reflect the structure and features of its financial system.
For instance, it has been argued that the saving rate in China is very high, even after the recent revisions of GDP data, because households need to save more for retirement and health care, but at the same time returns  6  BIS Review 9/2006  on financial assets are too low.