The Chinese central bank's efforts to keep the yuan stable

The Chinese central bank's efforts to keep the yuan stable and investor caution before Wednesday's release of trade data helped China's yuan stay flat against the U.S. unit Tuesday.   Dealers said they expect the dollar to continue consolidating in a narrow range of CNY6.8350-CNY6.8420 while investors await China's February imports and exports data.   On the over-the-counter market, the dollar was at CNY6.8401 around 0730 GMT, little changed from Monday's close of CNY6.8400. It traded between CNY6.8301 and CNY6.8410.   The dollar-yuan central parity rate was set at 6.8358, up slightly from 6.8355 Monday.   "The Chinese central bank only fine-tuned the fixing after the dollar rose sharply against the British pound overnight, which shows Beijing's intention to keep the currency stable," said a Shanghai-based dealer at a foreign bank.   The U.K. pound fell to a six-week low of $1.3747 late in New York Monday as the market continues to speculate over whether the quantitative easing announced by the Bank of England last week will be adequate to halt the U.K. economy's slide into recession.   China's foreign exchange market also shrugged off a government report showing the first sign of deflation in the country in over six years.   Official data earlier Tuesday showed China's consumer price index dropped 1.6% in February from a year earlier.   "The February CPI is basically within our expectation, and what we care most about is the imports and exports data," said a Guangzhou-based dealer at a foreign bank, adding he expects a continuing slide in imports and exports from January.   Offshore, one-year dollar-yuan nondeliverable forwards were at 6.9448/6.9498, down slightly from 6.9499/6.9549 late Monday afternoon.