In order to explore the interrelated impacts of the economical communications between China and Hong Kong SAR, especially after the closer economic partnership arrangement (CEPA) and the Chinese yuan offshore financial business in Hong Kong banks in 2004, the exchange rates of the Chinese yuan and the Hong Kong dollar are investigated as well-performing market signals that should reflect this historical transformation. With vector autoregressive models (VAR), the Johansen cointegration test and the Granger causality test on the exchange rates of the Chinese yuan and the Hong Kong dollar adjusted by the consumer price index and inter-bank interest rates are examined. It is found that the exchange rates of the Chinese yuan and the Hong Kong dollar after CEPA are in long-term equilibrium and Granger causality with each other, which means that the interrelationship of the Chinese yuan and the Hong Kong dollar is more closely integrated after the implementation of the CEPA. In conclusion, the cooperation regarding bilateral trade and financial markets between China and Hong Kong SAR has been enhanced after 1997; furthermore, after the implementation of CEPA the interrelationship of the economies between China and Hong Kong SAR is significantly reinforced.
Yang Haizhen1 Li Jing1 Peng Ni2(1 School of Management, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, China)(2 CITIC International Contracting Inc., Beijing 100004, China)