(Xinhua/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-12-11 11:16

BEIJING - China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high against the US dollar on Tuesday to break the 7.38 mark. The central parity rate stood at 7.3797 yuan against one dollar, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.

It was the 76th occasion this year that the yuan had reached a new high against the greenback.

The yuan climbed 156 basis points from its previous trading of 7.3953 yuan against one dollar.

The previous record, 7.3872 yuan against one dollar, was set on November 27.

As of Tuesday, the Chinese currency had climbed 4,290 basis points, or 5.49 percent, from the 7.8087 yuan against one U.S. dollar mark set on the last day of trading in 2006.

Cao Honghui, a senior official with the Institute of Finance and Banking of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the yuan was in a trend of slow and stable appreciation.

The People's Bank of China on May 21 further widened the floating band of yuan against the dollar for daily spot trading on the inter-bank market from 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent.

On Tuesday, the yuan was lower against both the euro and British pound, with the central parity rate standing at 10.8566 yuan and 15.1018 yuan respectively.

Meanwhile, the yuan gained against the Japanese yen and the Hong Kong dollar to stand at 6.5958 yuan against 100 Japanese yen and 0.94646 yuan against one Hong Kong dollar.

The Third China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Trade Surplus

China reported a trade surplus of US$26.28 billion in November, bringing the total in the first 11 months of this year to US$238.12 billion, the General Administration of Customs said Tuesday.

Exports increased 22.8 percent to US$117.62 billion in November from the same period last year, while imports grew at a higher rate of 25.3 percent to US$91.34 billion, the administration said.

The surplus in November was slightly lower than US$27.05 billion in the previous month but higher than US$22.93 billion in November 2006, compared with US$177.47 billion in all of 2006.

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