By Alex Ho
Investing.com - The Chinese yuan gained on Thursday in Asia after the People’s Bank of China said it is cutting its loan prime rate (LPR).
The USD/CNY pair gained 0.3% to 7.0161 after the PBOC slashed its 1-year LPR by 10 basis point. The 5-year rate was also reduced by 5 basis point, the central bank announced today.
In other news, China’s Hubei province adjusted its diagnosing method and reported only 394 new confirmed cases as of Feb. 19, compared to almost 2,000 on the previous day.
That brings the total confirmed cases to 74,576.
The U.S. dollar index that tracks the greenback against a basket of other currencies was near flat at 99.582. The index had a relatively muted reaction to the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January meeting released earlier this week.
"With regard to monetary policy beyond this meeting, participants viewed the current stance of policy as likely to remain appropriate for a time ... to support sustained expansion of economic activity, strong labor market conditions, and inflation returning to the Committee's symmetric 2 percent objective," the minutes showed.
Meanwhile, the AUD/USD pair lost 0.3% to 0.6652 after the country reported that its unemployment rate in January rose to 5.3% from the 5.1% in the previous month.
The GBP/USD pair slipped 0.1% to 1.2911 as traders shrugged off better-than-expected U.K. inflation data.
The EUR/USD pair also edged down 0.1% to 1.0796.
The USD/JPY pair was little changed at 111.37.