(Bloomberg) -- The yuan fell past this year’s low to a level last seen in January 2017 as the central bank weakened the fixing after the Treasury Department stopped short of declaring China a currency manipulator.
The currency slid as much as 0.3 percent to 6.9422 per dollar. The currency, which has slumped more than 9 percent in the past six months, had held near the mid-August low of 6.9340 for most of this month, before the U.S. Treasury issued its semi-annual report overnight.
While the Treasury said in the report that direct intervention by China’s central bank has recently been “limited,” the U.S. is “deeply disappointed” that the nation doesn’t disclose its foreign exchange intervention.
The PBOC weakened its daily reference rate by 0.25 percent to 6.9275 on Thursday. The offshore yuan lost 0.09 percent. Stocks slumped, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling to a fresh four-year low, amid concern that shares pledged as collateral for loans are being liquidated.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tian Chen in Hong Kong at tchen259@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Richard Frost at rfrost4@bloomberg.net
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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