China's yuan edges up to three-year high

China’s yuan edged up to a three-year high against the US dollar on Thursday, while stock indexes dipped as investors awaited the outcome of a summit between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.

US President Donald Trump called China’s President Xi Jinping a great leader and a friend as they began two days of talks on Thursday, which are set to cover their fragile trade truce and the Iran war.

“Beijing is adopting a wait-and-see mode, given the ‘better than expected’ first-quarter (economic) growth ... Beijing’s focus for the summit is not on deliverables but on optics, aiming to project stability and predictability to both international and domestic audiences,” said Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie.

The Chinese currency, traded both onshore and offshore, reached its strongest levels in more than three years after the central bank lifted its official guidance rate.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate at 6.8401 per dollar, its strongest since March 24, 2023. However, the official fixing was 513 pips weaker than a Reuters estimate of 6.7888, marking the largest deviation since March 2.

The central bank has been setting weaker-than-expected midpoints since November, a move market participants believe is aimed at preventing excessive yuan gains and maintaining currency stability.

The onshore yuan last traded at 6.7862 per dollar as of midday, while the offshore yuan stood at 6.7852.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev