diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index e751bc4334d..b876f342fd7 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -1959,7 +1959,7 @@ int PyUnicode_EncodeDecimal(Py_UNICODE *s,
 	    continue;
 	}
 	if (0 < ch < 256) {
-	    *output++ = ch;
+	    *output++ = (char) ch;
 	    continue;
 	}
 	/* All other characters are considered invalid */