A year after China broke its peg with the US dollar to launch what it labelled as a new and more flexible currency regime, Bo Xilai, China’s commerce minister, was still fretting about the adverse impact on exporters of a stronger renminbi.

Mr Bo, whose ministry handles trade policy, complained in mid-2006 that the rising renminbi had “reduced profits” in labour-intensive industries in ­general and the textiles sector, with its thin margins of “3 per cent”, in particular.