US Treasury drops China currency manipulator tag ahead of trade deal

The US Treasury Department on Monday dropped its designation of China as a currency manipulator days before top officials of the world's two largest economies were due to sign a preliminary trade agreement to ease an 18-month-old tariff war.

The widely expected decision came in a long-delayed semi-annual currency report, reversing an unexpected move by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last August at the height of US-China trade tensions.

Mnuchin had accused China of deliberately holding down the value of its yuan currency to create an unfair trade advantage, just hours after President Donald Trump, angered at the lack of progress in trade