Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimates that bringing the yuan’s value up by 40% could generate some 1.2 million U.S. jobs, going a long way towards meeting U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent pledge to create two million jobs, while doubling exports over the next five years. Chinese policymakers insist that adjustments in the yuan’s value will have little direct impact on the trade balance with the U.S., adding that its nearly 15% gain against the euro is already too great a burden. “A revaluation would not bring any good to our economy, as our exporters already are under heavy cost pressures. It would be dangerous to revalue,” said Yi Xianrong, Economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing. Others are in favor of loosening exchange rate controls. “A more flexible currency rate will do good to both ourselves and the world economy,” said Economist Mao Yushi. Economist Zhang Bin forecast that a 10% rise in the yuan’s value would cause a 3.3% drop in exports, posing no great threat. Not all American companies favor pushing for a stronger yuan. Executives of multinationals with big operations in China tend to favor keeping currency rates steady. “The stable yuan is obviously easier for managers to cope with,” said Kevin Wale, President of General Motors China Group, which sources 85% of its parts locally. For many Chinese firms, adjusting to a stronger yuan would involve trying to climb the “value chain” to produce more expensive products or by selling more inside China. But for most exporters, going local is tough given the fierce competition from both Chinese and foreign companies fighting for a piece of the market, the South China Morning Post reports.

• China will levy a 5% resource tax on crude oil and natural gas sales and a 2% to 5% tax on coal in Xinjiang from June 1, raising over CNY2 billion for the region this year. The new tax levels, based on resource prices, will replace existing levies that charge CNY8 to CNY30 per ton on crude oil output, CNY0.02 to CNY0.15  per cubic meter on gas and CNY0.3 to CNY5 per ton on coal.
• Industrial profits in China rose 91.5% in the first four months of the year from the same period a year earlier, according to a wide sample of provinces, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. The data covered industrial companies operating in 24 of the country’s 31 provinces and accounting for 82% of nationwide industrial revenues.