China central bank official defends rapid use of foreign reserves to keep yuan steady

Beijing

A SENIOR official at China's central bank has defended authorities' rapid use of foreign exchange reserves to keep the yuan currency stable, saying the benefits "outweighed the drawbacks", according to a state newspaper.

"The use of foreign reserves has kept the yuan stable and prevented market overshooting," the Ren Min Zheng Xie Bao paper quoted Yi Gang, a vice-governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), as saying.