'Fluctuations are linked to dollar'

Economists are insisting that recent global financial market sell-offs should not be blamed on the depreciation of the Chinese currency.

Stock markets in New York, Tokyo and Europe have been fluctuating since Aug 20, just after strong hints by the United States Federal Reserve that it planned to hike interest rates and return the US economy to a more normalized monetary policy.

The yuan's sudden depreciation, however, happened 10 days earlier than the start of those wild swings, and should not be blamed as the fuse which sparked the sell-offs, said Ding Zhijie, an assistant to the president of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.