Yuan devaluation, US rate hike are main focus

READING between the lines of the minutes of the US Federal Reserve's October Open Markets Committee meeting, many analysts have concluded that in the minds of Fed officials, China is not a problem any longer.

This impression was formed because the minutes did not mention "overseas concerns", a phrase which had been present in the minutes of the September meeting and which led the Fed to keep interest rates unchanged.

Because it is absent in the October statement, many believe that since China's stock market has stopped gyrating as wildly as it did in August/September, the US central bank will now focus on its domestic imperatives when the December meeting comes around. This would be a mistake - even though China's stock market has ceased its daily swings of 10 per cent, there is still room for concern.