When China’s central bank governor broke a six-month silence at the weekend, he suggested critics of his institution’s communication strategy expected too much.

“The central bank is neither God nor a magician who can turn uncertainties into certainties,” Zhou Xiaochuan told a Chinese financial magazine on Saturday, just two days before his country’s currency and equity markets were due to resume trading after the week-long Chinese new year holiday.

It had been a turbulent week on international markets and China has had a habit of making bad situations worse since a “one-off” devaluation of the renminbi last August. But Mr Zhou’s assurance that “there is no basis for devaluation” of the Chinese currency appeared to have a soothing effect yesterday, with the renminbi making its biggest daily gain against the dollar in more than a decade.