The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the yuan, weakened 11 basis points to 6.8873 against the U.S. dollar Friday, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.
Hours after the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates, China's interest rates for medium-term lending facility (MLF) loans and reverse repos, both open market operation tools of the central bank, went up by 10 basis points Thursday.
"The higher rates are the result of changes in market supply and demand and do not indicate a shift in China's monetary policy stance," the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said in an online statement.
The PBOC attributed the higher rates to improving economies both at home and abroad, rising consumer prices and the Fed interest rates hike.
The latest economic data, including industrial output, fixed-asset investment, private sector investment and real estate investment, showed that the Chinese economy was expanding steadily at the beginning of 2017.
According to the government work report released Thursday, China will build a "firewall" against financial risk, and keep careful watch on non-performing assets, bond defaults, shadow banking and Internet finance.
In China's spot foreign exchange market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day.
Latest comments