【英语财经】中国央行大幅下调人民币汇率中间价 PBoC cuts renminbi fix by most on record

When all else fails, weaken the currency.

Chinese policy-makers have undertaken numerous innovative measures to stimulate the economy and stock market recently, but today it went old school: the central bank weakened the daily fix by its most on record.

Each day at 9:15am local time the People's Bank of China fixes the currency at a certain point, allowing investors to trade the currency within a 2 per cent band of the mid-point each day.

Usually the moves are tiny. Today it cut the fix by 1.9 per cent — the most on record. Before today the biggest move in 2015 was just 0.16 per cent.

The huge move suggests the PBoC wants to support exports, a key driver for the economy, after the latest trade data for showed they tumbled 8.3 per cent year-on-year in July.

"The disappointing trade and inflation data point to renewed weakness in the economy, and it's too early to say growth has bottomed," said economists at BNP on Monday. "Stimulating investment again becomes the only hope."

In the forex market, the renminbi fell 0.93 per cent — the biggest one-day fall on record — to 6.2679 per dollar, the weakest rate since March 4.

当所有其他手段都不奏效时，就让货币贬值吧。

最近，中国政策制定者采取了众多花样翻新的手段提振经济和股市。但今天，他们又回到了老路上：中国央行有记录以来最大的幅度下调了人民币汇率中间价。

北京时间每天上午9时15分，中国央行会把人民币汇率设定在某个点位上（即汇率中间价），允许投资者当天在这个点位上下各2%的区间内展开交易。

通常，中间价的调整幅度很小。今天，中国央行却把人民币汇率中间价下调了1.9%，是有记录以来的最大下调幅度。在今天以前，2015年的最大调整幅度也不过才0.16%。

这一重大举措表明，在最新数据显示今年6月贸易同比下降8.3%后，中国央行希望支持中国经济的关键引擎之一——出口。

“令人失望的贸易和通胀数据表明，经济再次走弱，现在就说增长已经触底还太早，”法国巴黎银行(BNP Paribas)的经济学家周一表示，“再次刺激投资成为了唯一的希望。”

在外汇市场上，人民币汇率下跌了0.93%——创下最大单日跌幅纪录——至1美元兑6.2679元人民币，这是今年3月4日以来人民币兑美元汇率的最低值。

译者/何黎