SHANGHAI: China’s yuan recouped losses against the surging dollar by midday on Thursday after falling earlier to near its weakest levels since the global financial crisis in 2008.

The sharp turnaround was sparked by a Bloomberg report that China is considering reducing the COVID-19 quarantine time for inbound travelers to seven days from 10, citing unidentified sources, though other details were scant. The report comes after the capital Beijing yesterday dialled up measures to stop COVID, strengthening public checks and locking down some residential compounds after a quadrupling of its case load in recent weeks.

Prior to the market opening, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate at 7.1188 per dollar, 83 pips or 0.12% weaker than the previous fix 7.1105.

Several traders said Thursday’s official guidance came in much stronger than market projections, a sign that the authorities were stepping up efforts to maintain market stability during the politically sensitive Communist Party Congress, which ends on Saturday. The official fixing was 250 pips firmer than Reuters’ estimate of 7.1438.