TOKYO -- With the depreciation of the yuan casting a long shadow over global financial markets, observers are increasingly concerned that the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, may be trying to use its new currency index to fend off criticism over its apparent desire to let the currency fall further.
The China Foreign Exchange Trade System, an arm of the central bank, on Dec. 11 set up the CFETS yuan index, a new currency basket, to measure the yuan's performance against a basket of 13 currencies, including the dollar, the euro and the yen.
