Offshore yuan falls for fourth day on bets PBOC has weaker bias

The offshore yuan headed for its longest losing streak in a month against the dollar as the central bank cut the fixing and speculation grew authorities are comfortable with greater currency weakness.
The yuan traded in Hong Kong fell 0.04 percent to 6.5068 per dollar as of 4:36 p.m. local time. It dropped as low as 6.5169 earlier, the lowest level in nearly a month. The People’s Bank of China lowered the fixing for a third day after a  gauge of the greenback’s strength climbed on Friday.
Declines by the Chinese currency against an index of 13 peers is spurring speculation the authorities are guiding the yuan lower to help exporters, despite government pledges of “stability” against the basket. A Bloomberg replica of the CFETS RMB Index fell to a 17-month low last week.
“The yuan weakened because the dollar rebounded and the PBOC created this image of it having a depreciation bias by quietly pushing the currency basket lower,” said Tommy Xie, a Singapore-based economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. “But everything comes with a cost – if the PBOC’s bias is too obvious, it’s going to confuse the market of policy intention.” Bloomberg