FX.co ★ Offshore Yuan Extends Fall

The offshore yuan weakened to around 6.80 per dollar on Tuesday, extending the previous session’s losses and touching a one-week low as investors assessed the latest outlook for China’s economy. The World Bank forecast that China’s economic growth will slow to 4.4% in 2026 and 4.3% in 2027, citing a prolonged property market slump and subdued consumer spending. At the same time, the government set its 2026 GDP growth target at 4.5%–5.0%—the lowest since 1991 and the first downward revision since 2023—after keeping the target at around 5% for the past three years. Separately, the PBoC announced new measures to bolster Hong Kong’s role as an offshore yuan hub. These include more than doubling the RMB Business Facility to 500 billion yuan, raising the annual Southbound Bond Connect quota to 800 billion yuan from 500 billion yuan, and pledging support for additional yuan-denominated commodity products, following the launch of a new gold clearing system in Hong Kong backed by major banks.