This week it hit a six-month low on the dollar after surprise cuts to key China rates, putting the gap between 10-year sovereign yields in China and the U.S. at its widest since November. The position, with China's rates below those in the United States , is the reverse of more than a decade of high-growth that saw China paying better yields than markets in the west. "The People's Bank of China's tolerance of currency weakness ... also opens up room for further yuan weakness." Even if the Federal Reserve holds rates steady later on Wednesday, as expected, traders are braced for an extended period of elevated U.S. interest rates and, increasingly, for China to hold rates low or push them even lower. Analysts polled by Reuters expect the PBOC will cut the costs of medium-term loans on Thursday and many market watchers expect a benchmark lending rate cut next week.

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Persons: hasn't, Morgan, J.P, Tommy Xie, Kiyong Seong, Winni Zhou, Brenda Goh, Tom Westbrook, Kim Coghill Organizations: Bond, People's Bank, People's Bank of China, Federal Reserve, Reuters, Authorities, OCBC Bank, Societe Generale, Thomson Locations: SHANGHAI, SINGAPORE, China, U.S, Beijing, United States, Asia, Shanghai, Singapore