SYDNEY, March 5 Reuters The dollar was steady against the yuan on Tuesday as markets digested policy statements out of China that were short on big stimulus measures, while a rebound in Tokyo inflation seemed to take Japan a step closer to the end of negative interest rates.

Crypto mania is still running wild, with bitcoin trading near 66,000, having surged to 68,828 earlier in the session, just shy of the record peak of 68,999.99 it touched in November 2021.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value is up around 57 this year, benefiting from flows into exchangetraded funds launched in the United States.

Early news out of China39;s National People39;s Congress NPC contained few surprises, with Beijing sticking with an ambitious economic growth target of 5 and a budget deficit of 3.

Analysts say meeting the target will be a challenge as a protracted property crisis, low consumption, slow global growth and geopolitical tensions drag on activity.

There are formidable challenges for the around 5 GDP growth target, in our opinion, as the recovery has been slow almost towards the end of first quarter and private enterprises investment confidence remains low as well, said Redmond Wong, Chief China strategist at Saxo.

Spot yuan opened at 7.1950 per dollar and was changing hands at 7.1985, while the offshore yuan was little changed at 7.2100 as markets hoped more concrete stimulus measures would emerge.

The Japanese yen held steady after data showed Tokyo core inflation…