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By Bloomberg

China’s yuan dropped for a fifth day, its longest losing run in seven months, amid concern the world’s second-largest economy is slowing.

Risks of yuan weakness are building as domestic growth is likely to be softer in the first quarter of 2015, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. A Bloomberg survey forecasts gross domestic product will rise 7.3 percent in the January-March period, compared with 7.4 percent in the same quarter this year. The People’s Bank of China cut the yuan’s reference rate for a fourth day after the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index climbed to a five-year high yesterday.

The yuan fell 0.07 percent to close at 6.2260 per dollar in Shanghai, China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices show. It has lost 0.58 percent in five days, the longest losing streak since May 28. The PBOC lowered the daily fixing by 0.02 percent to 6.1230, the weakest level since Dec. 9. The currency was at a 1.65 percent discount to the reference rate, within the 2 percent limit.

“Slower economic growth doesn’t bode well for the yuan’s near-term outlook,” said Kenix Lai, a Hong Kong-based currency analyst at Bank of East Asia Ltd. “The yuan could weaken to 6.25 given the strength of the U.S. dollar.”

In Hong Kong’s offshore market, the yuan dropped 0.1 percent to 6.2249 a dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Twelve-month non-deliverable forwards rose 0.04 percent to 6.3605 and traded 2.1 percent weaker than the spot rate in Shanghai.

Reports this month showed China’s export growth and inflation trailed estimates and imports fell. The economy will expand 7.4 percent this year, the slowest since 1990, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.