With effect from March 15, 2014 the People's Bank of China (PBOC) has permitted the onshore yuan to trade as much as 2 percent on either side of the  reference rate. The previous limit was 1 percent. 

Premier Li Keqiang had mentioned broadening the yuan band, as one of the policy goals for 2014 at the Third Party Plenum last November, in order to give market forces a bigger role in China's economy. PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan had also, in a guidebook issued in November 2013 just after the Third Party Plenum,  highlighted an “orderly” widening of the band in order to comply with the Plenum's decision to give markets a “decisive” role in the pricing of resources.