China's central bank cut the currency's reference rate by the second-biggest amount in two decades, as a new pricing regime takes market forces into account.
The reference rate for the renminbi was 6.3306 versus the US dollar this morning, 1.6 per cent weaker than the 6.2298 set by the People's Bank of China on Tuesday, writes Peter Wells.
On Tuesday, the central bank cut the reference rate for the Chinese currency by 1.9 per cent, the biggest devaluation since 1994 (and since the crawling peg system was introduced in July 2005). The move caused the US dollar to spike, prompting regional currencies to weaken against the greenback, and unsettled equity markets.