12 of August. The yuan to the dollar was dropped on record for the last 20 years of 1.9%.
The people's Bank of China changed the method of calculating the exchange rate of the yuan to the dollar. The official rate was lowered to a record over the last 20 years 1.9% - to 6,2298 yuan per 1 us dollar.
The regulator explained that the change to calculating exchange rate was made taking into account the positive balance of foreign trade of China and the strong position of the RMB relative to the currencies of other countries.
Experts believe that the decision of the Chinese authorities will not have a strong influence on the Russian market, because the amount of mutual payments in yuan was only about 7%.
"The RMB devaluation will affect Russia not directly, but rather through the global concerns about Chinese growth," - said a senior strategist at Sberbank CIB Vladimir Pantyushin.
From mid-July China's stock market fell more than 30%, the index of business activity fell to the lowest level in the last 2 years. The slowdown of China's economy raises concerns of stock market participants. After these messages the price of Brent crude fell in one day almost 5%.
According to Vladimir Pantyushin, the devaluation of the yuan could provide a positive impact on the ruble and the Russian economy, raising the price of oil.
The purpose was to stimulate exports
The decision of the government of China to devalue the yuan is internal and aimed at stimulating exports, said the head of the program "Russia in the Asia-Pacific," Carnegie Moscow Center Alexander Gabuev. "The national Bank of China is trying to boost exports after the alarming data on exports for the last two quarters," he said.
For the first 7 months of the current year the volume of foreign trade of China declined annually by approximately 7.3% (to 13.63 trillion yuan - about 2.19 trillion U.S. dollars). The volume of exports fell by 0.9% (to 7.75 trillion yuan – about 1.24 trillion), imports declined by 14.6% (to 5.88 trillion yuan – about 947 billion dollars).
According to experts, the settlements between China and Russia in rubles and yuan will not suffer from fluctuation of the yuan, which are still occurring much less frequently than the jumps of the ruble.
