Renminbi swings prompt companies to cut dollar debt

The continued depreciation of the yuan has prompted several Chinese companies to take active measures to cut their dollar-denominated debt.

On Thursday, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, surprised markets by setting the official midpoint rate on the yuan at 6.5646 per dollar, the lowest since March 2011. The move follows similar steps taken by the central bank on Tuesday.

Though the PBOC's China Foreign Exchange Trade System reiterated on Thursday that there was no basis for the yuan's continuous depreciation and that it was stable against a basket of currencies in 2015, the swings have left the markets perplexed.