The time is now right to allow greater volatility in the Chinese currency’s exchange rate with the dollar, according to a front-page commentary in the China Securities Journal, a newspaper run by the Xinhua News Agency. The Chinese government has been on the defensive over the value of the yuan for nearly two years after the abrupt 2% devaluation of the currency in August 2015. The Chinese government has taken a slew of measures, from draconian curbs on capital outflow to the adoption of opaque and complex changes to the yuan exchange regime, to keep the currency from weakening sharply. But the China Securities Journal now said that “the one-sided bet on yuan deprecation has been broken. Cross-border capital flow has been stabilized and improved in the first half, while supply and demand in the forex market has basically balanced – it is in the most balanced period for the past three years. It is good timing for China to boost yuan exchange rate flexibility in the short term.” The yuan has already advanced to a nine-month high against the U.S. dollar. China’s foreign exchange reserves have also been stabilized at a level of USD3 trillion over the past months. Zhang Xiaohui, Assistant Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), wrote in an article that the authorities would “unswervingly” push ahead with yuan exchange rate liberalization to give the market a decisive role in deciding the yuan’s value, the South China Morning Post reports.