The yuan held steady against the dollar on both the spot and offshore non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) markets on Thursday with traders not expecting strong Chinese economic data to influence yuan policy in the short term. China posted a slew of data showing the economy was headed for a full recovery and inflation was on the rise, but the Chinese central bank gave no signs of any immediate change to its stable yuan currency policy.

The National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday that gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 10.7 percent between October and December, compared with a year earlier, below market expectations of 10.9 percent but up from a revised 9.1 percent in the third quarter.

The People's Bank Of China set the yuan's daily mid-point, or its reference rate, at 6.8272 versus the dollar, up only one pip from Wednesday's 6.8273. Spot yuan closed at 6.8268 against the dollar, slightly firmer from Wednesday's close of 6.8271. "The economic data is largely in line with our expectations," said a dealer.

Copyright Reuters, 2010