(Bloomberg) -- The yuan fell to a one-year low as the central bank showed little sign of intervening to slow the currency’s descent.
The yuan dropped 0.3 percent to 6.7652 per dollar, the lowest level since July 2017, in offshore trading. The People’s Bank of China weakened its fixing beyond 6.7 on Thursday for the first time since the currency began tumbling in June.
The yuan has fallen more than 4 percent in the past month, the worst performance among 31 major currencies, as the world’s second largest economy showed signs of slowing and a trade spat with the U.S. escalated. China will tolerate higher volatility in the yuan and a moderate weakening of the currency, according to Pacific Investment Management Co.
The fixing "signals the PBOC is not defending any line in the sand for the exchange rate and is comfortable with gradual yuan depreciation," said Tommy Xie, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. in Singapore. "The market will keep pushing the yuan toward a weaker level."
The onshore yuan dropped 0.2 percent to 6.7345 per dollar in Shanghai.
To contact the reporters on this story: Tian Chen in Hong Kong at tchen259@bloomberg.net;Emma Dai in Hong Kong at edai8@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Richard Frost at rfrost4@bloomberg.net, David Watkins
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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