China has no plans to devalue country’s currency, says vice president

China’s vice president said Thursday that his government has no intention of devaluing the yuan.

“The fluctuations in the currency market are a result of market forces and the Chinese government has no intention and no policy to devalue its currency,” Li Yuanchao told Bloomberg in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

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Li, who is also a member of the Communist party’s Politburo, also put the blame for the volatility in the yuan on the US Federal Reserve’s first post-crisis rate rise in December.

The yuan’s sharp swings this month have not only sparked capital outflows from China and a sell-off in the stock markets, but also stoked speculation China might once again devalue its currency, as it did in August 2015 to support a flagging economy.

China has come in for criticism that it has left markets confused about its policies and occasionally its stated intentions such as keeping its currency stable have not always matched its actions.

International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde said at the World Economic Forum that China needed to communicate better with financial markets.