Yuan Weakens to Seven-Month Low Despite Moves to Stem Decline

(Bloomberg) — The onshore yuan reopened from a holiday on the back foot, despite a move by China to slow its slide with a stronger-than-expected reference rate for the managed currency.

The yuan slid as much as 0.9% to a seven-month low of 7.2380 per dollar in Shanghai on Monday, as pessimism over the economic recovery and China’s policy divergence from peers continued to weigh on sentiment. The offshore yuan declined 0.3%, also falling to the lowest since November. The People’s Bank of China had sought to curb onshore currency weakness by setting its so-called fixing at the largest premium to estimates this year on Monday.