The yuan had its first monthly loss against the US dollar since May 2006 on speculation that weaker global demand will prompt the government to limit currency gains to protect exporters.

According to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, the yuan fell to 6.8350 per US dollar as of Friday in Shanghai. Vice Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said on Thursday that the yuan's 6.6-percent gain in the first half, which almost matched the advance for the whole of 2007, crimped the profits of exporters and cooled sales abroad. He said China's exports could increase in the second half at the same pace as in the first six months of the year.

Overseas shipments rose 21.8 percent in the first half of 2008, slower than their 27.6 percent growth a year earlier.

(CCTV August 30, 2008)