Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    BEIJING, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese yuan weakened for a fifth trading day Thursday, despite government denials that the currency has deliberately been allowed to fall.

    The weakening followed Wednesday's denial by the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planner, of a media report saying that the yuan could weaken to about 6.9 to 7 per U.S. dollar.

    Thursday, the central parity rate of the currency was set at 6.8369 per U.S. dollar. The yuan is allowed to float on the interbank market within a 0.5-percent band against the parity rate, which is set daily by the People's Bank of China, the central bank.

    Analyst Yuan Yongjun with Shanghai-based consultancy China Forex Online said that the continuous weakening was "quite normal" as the rate had stabilized in a range of 6.83 to 6.84 per dollar in January.

    "The yuan's weakening doesn't really stand out, as most of the non-U.S. dollar currencies have been slipping," he said.

    The yen, for instance, fell to a six-week low of 93.94 yen per U.S. dollar Wednesday. The Swiss franc fell to a 10-week low of 1.1826 per U.S. dollar and the euro has fluctuated around 1.26 U.S. dollars for several days.

    Analysts contacted by Xinhua forecast only minor fluctuations for the yuan-U.S. dollar rate in the near term, since the global economic outlook was unclear, with no signs of either an immediate turnaround or a swift deterioration.

    "Since it holds the largest foreign reserves and the largest share of U.S.-dollar-denominated Treasury bonds," China will not allow its currency to move much either way, Yuan said.