Moves on yuan point to reform

The recent deprecation of the yuan reflects Beijing's move toward a free floating exchange rate system, after the central bank set the yuan reference rate on Thursday at record low level against the US dollar.

The People's Bank of China set the central parity rate of the yuan against the greenback at 6.9085, following 6.8904 the previous day, the lowest level since June 2008.

The yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 2 percent from the central parity rate in China's spot foreign exchange market.