The appreciation of China's currency renminbi (RMB) is speeding up, with the daily benchmark value rising to a new high of 7.9688 yuan against one US dollar on Thursday after the central bank issued its quarterly monetary report.

 

The central bank said on Thursday in the report that the exchange rate had a role to play in evening out the international payment imbalance, igniting the market speculation that the exchange rate would be loosened and accelerate its appreciation, Friday's Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities News reported.

 

The Bulletin of China Foreign Exchange Trading Center showed on Thursday that the value reached 7.9688 yuan, a new high after it broke 7.97 yuan on Aug. 7.

 

It has kept hitting new highs in recent days, breaking the psychological pass of 7.98 yuan and 7.97 yuan in three trading days.

 

Generally, the RMB has been inching upward since its value was raised by two percent and it was linked to a basket of foreign currencies in July last year, scrapping its decade-old peg to the US dollar.

 

The RMB, limited to moving 0.3 percent above or below each day's central parity rate against the US dollar, has risen 1.74 percent over the past year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2006)