Is the unpredictable and opaque PBOC ready for prime time?

Hong Kong

IN its quarterly report, the People's Bank of China questioned the merits of transparency, saying too much openness could lead to "pressure from various sides". Such a stance and its unscheduled policy moves come as governor Zhou Xiaochuan and Premier Li Keqiang loosen barriers to money flows and seek to establish the yuan as an international currency. For global investors, greater access to the world's No. 2 economy is poised to come with more exposure to a monetary policy regime that's ever-more unpredictable, raising the question: Is the PBOC ready for prime time?

Information about the Communist leadership's clean-up of local-government debt has eked out in anonymously sourced press reports. The latest interest-rate move came late on a Su…