The offshore yuan stabilized around 7.19 per dollar on Thursday, as investors digested key announcements made at the opening of the 2025 Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai. People’s Bank of China Governor Pan Gongsheng unveiled eight major initiatives aimed at further opening China’s financial markets and enhancing Shanghai’s role as a global financial center.
Among them, China will establish an “international operations center” for the digital yuan to bolster the global presence of the renminbi. On the monetary policy front, investors are focused on the PBoC’s upcoming policy decision, with market expectations pointing to unchanged loan prime rates. Meanwhile, escalating tensions in the Middle East continued to weigh on market sentiment, following reports that the US is preparing to launch a strike on Iran as early as this weekend. In response, Iran’s Supreme Leader warned that any US intervention could cause “irreparable damage.”
