Yuan

The biggest? A seal of approval from the International Monetary Fund.

But did it work to calm global fears?

It could affect imports, exports and interest rates.

Marketplace's Shanghai correspondent says the Chinese economy's failures are progress.

In the past two weeks, we've seen the most rapid fall in China's currency in decades.

With consumer demand still sluggish in the U.S. and Europe, China is looking elsewhere for new customers to places like Brazil. In fact, this week China and Brazil agreed to a landmark deal that avoids using the U.S. dollar.

But experts say the yuan is still substantially undervalued against the U.S. dollar. And the change won't mean much improvement in the persistent U.S.-China trade imbalance.

China and Japan move to trade each other's currencies directly, without using the U.S. dollar to set the exchange rate. The change is a new step toward a world where the dollar is not last word in global currencies.

A wave of disappointing news about China's economy could push up inflation there and curb sales of U.S. products.