China fires back at currency-depreciation claims, denies using weak yuan to boost exports

Beijing has stressed that it does not intend to rely on a weaker yuan for trade gains, amid a recent rally in the currency and mounting pressure from trade partners to allow it to strengthen.“China has neither the need nor the intention to gain competitive advantages in trade through currency depreciation,” said Pan Gongsheng, governor of the central bank, at a press conference of the country’s top economic officials on Friday.The comments came ahead of a new round of trade talks between China and the United States in Paris next week. China’s massive export machine, a key source of bilateral trade imbalance, is usually high on the agenda of negotiations.The US administration has previously accused China of achieving “unfair” trade advantages through currency depreciation – a claim that Beijing has long denied. Washington once labelled China a currency manipulator during President Donald Trump’s first term.“At present, the yuan-dollar exchange rate is around the midpoint of its range in recent years,” Pan said.The yuan has strengthened steadily against the US dollar since late last year. The PBOC set the yuan’s fixing rate at 6.9025 to the US dollar on Friday, slightly weaker than Thursday’s 6.9007, which was the strongest level in 34 months.The yuan’s rally coincides with a softening of the dollar, which has faced downward pressure in recent months, driven by policy uncertainty under the Trump administration.