A subject for the invention is to provide a branched aromatic
polycarbonate which is excellent in hue and in melt characteristics such
as melt strength.The invention provides a branched aromatic polycarbonate
having a viscosity-average molecular weight of 16,000 or higher obtained
by the transesterification method, characterized in that the ratio of the
weight-average molecular weight (Mw) to number-average molecular weight
(Mn) as measured by gel permeation chromatography and calculated for
standard polystyrene (Mw/Mn) is in the range of from 2.8 to 4.5 and that
the proportion of the number of moles of all structural units yielded by
a rearrangement reaction in the course of melt polymerization reaction to
1 mol of structural units having the framework of an aromatic dihydroxy
compound used as a starting material is higher than 0.3 mol % and not
higher than 0.95 mol.