The renminbi's sharp fall over the past week started after regulators told traders that they were relaxing the foreign exchange trading limits, the report added.

The report, citing one of the people said the move to relax was made because policymakers "believed it was the proper time to let the renminbi depreciate a bit".

(Reporting by Sneha Bhowmik in Bengaluru; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)