China's yuan eased against the dollar on Tuesday on corporate demand for the greenback, while traders shrugged off US President Donald Trump's criticism of Beijing's management of its currency as well as data showing China's economy grew solidly in the first quarter.
"Russia and China are playing the Currency Devaluation game as the US keeps raising interest rates. Not acceptable!" Trump said in a Twitter post.
The Chinese currency has gained more than 10 percent against the dollar since Trump took office in January 2017 and has strengthened around 3.6 percent so far this year.
Prior to market opening, the People's Bank of China set the midpoint rate at 6.2771 per dollar, the strongest since April 2, and 113 pips or 0.18 percent firmer than the previous fix of 6.2884. While traders said the fixing largely matched market forecasts, it did prompt some corporate clients to stock up on dollars in morning trade and dragged the spot yuan rate lower.
In the spot market, the onshore yuan opened at 6.2740 per dollar and was changing hands at 6.2824 at midday, 63 pips weaker than the previous late session close and 0.08 percent softer than the midpoint.
The Thomson Reuters/HKEX Global CNH index, which tracks the offshore yuan against a basket of currencies on a daily basis, stood at 97.87, weaker than the previous day's 98.04. The global dollar index fell to 89.405 from the previous close of 89.425. The offshore yuan was trading 0.11 percent firmer than the onshore spot at 6.2752 per dollar.
Offshore one-year non-deliverable forwards contracts (NDFs), considered the best available proxy for forward-looking market expectations of the yuan's value, traded at 6.3725, 1.50 percent weaker than the midpoint.