Yuan hits near one-week low

SHANGHAI: China’s yuan weakened past a key threshold to a near one-week low against the dollar on Thursday, pressured by investor worries about a prolonged economic slowdown after Premier Li Keqiang held a rare high-profile meeting to support the economy.

China will “strive to drive the economy back onto a normal track” in the second quarter and stem rising unemployment, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying on Wednesday.

Prior to the market opening, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the midpoint rate at 6.6766 per dollar, 216 pips or 0.32% weaker than Wednesday’s fix at 6.6550.