China's yuan edged lower on Wednesday after the central bank fixed a weaker midpoint for a third straight day as the market awaited possible policy-related messages on the currency from Premier Li Keqiang. Premier Li said in earlier remarks in an ongoing press conference in Beijing that the global economic recovery is fragile and that downward pressure on China's economy persists.
However, he said China would not face a hard landing and that its economic targets for this year would be met.
The People's Bank of China set the midpoint rate at 6.5172 per dollar prior to market open, 0.14 percent weaker than the previous fix 6.5079.
In the spot market, the yuan opened at 6.5180 per dollar and was changing hands at 6.5202 at midday, easing 0.13 percent from the previous close.
The offshore yuan was trading 0.04 percent stronger than the onshore spot at 6.5178 per dollar.
The onshore yuan stayed flat against the euro by midday at 7.2352. It firmed 0.4 percent against the Japanese yen, hovering at 5.7517 to 100 yen.
"We noticed that today's central bank midpoint actually missed our expectations by about 30 pips," said a dealer at a Chinese commercial bank in Shanghai, referring to his bank's own calculations based on the basket of trade-weighted currencies.
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