Chalongphob Sussangkarn questioned in what sense the authors talk about an RMB bloc when the weights of the RMB in countries’ exchange rates can change over time. He also noted that when central banks look at exchange rates, they do not only consider nominal exchange rates but real exchange rates as well. This may change the results obtained in the paper as nominal exchange rates tend to be more volatile than real exchange rates. Finally, trade with China and the rest of Asia is important, but he asked to what extent this trade is denominated in U.S. dollars. He surmises that this trade is mostly denominated in U.S. dollars, not in RMB.
Iikka Korhonen asked about what happened in late 2013 or 2014 when trade with China became important for some countries like the Philippines and Indonesia. He also pointed out that there are countries that might more naturally form...