China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high against the U.S. dollar on Thursday at 7.5410 yuan to one U.S. dollar, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.
The central parity rate of the yuan, also known as Renminbi (RMB), stood at 7.5410 yuan to one U.S. dollar on Thursday, gaining 136 basis points from Wednesday's reference rate of 7.5546 to the greenback.
It is the 57th time since the beginning of this year that RMB reached a new high against the U.S. dollar. It climbed 2,677 basis points, or 3.428 percent, from 7.8087 yuan to one U.S. dollar posted on the last trading day of 2006.
The previous hit came last Wednesday, when the currency stood at 7.5505 to the dollar. The accumulative appreciation has exceeded nine percent since China discontinued yuan's peg to the greenback on July 21, 2005.
China is wise to appreciate its currency step by step, Robert Subbaraman from Lehman Brothers was quoted by Shanghai Securities News on Thursday as saying.
Had yuan risen too quickly, hot money would swarm into China and hurt the labor-intensive industries, said the chief economist from the New York-headquatered investment bank.
