Business this week

The People’s Bank of China unexpectedly devalued the yuan. A 1.9% drop on the day of the devaluation, the biggest single-day fall in the yuan’s modern history, was followed by further declines. The move unsettled global markets, prompting China to offer reassurances that this was not the start of a “persistent depreciation” of the yuan in order to boost the country’s flagging exports. By introducing more flexibility to the exchange rate, China may have hoped to bolster its case for the yuan to join the IMF’s basket of reserve currencies. See article.