China's yuan hit a new high against the US dollar yesterday as the central parity rate reached 7.5252 to the greenback.

The national currency gained 159 basis points from Friday's reference rate of 7.5411 to the dollar, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.

Yesterday's rise marked the 58th time since the beginning of this year that the yuan has reached a new high against the US dollar. The previous record came last Thursday, when the currency stood at 7.5410 to the greenback.

The yuan has appreciated about nine percent since July 2005 when the long-standing dollar peg was replaced with a market basket of foreign currencies.

Analysts said yesterday's acceleration of the yuan's value tracked the weak performance of the US dollar, which fell one percent against the euro and 2.1 percent against the Japanese yen last week.

Yesterday, the yuan gained 111 basis points against the Hong Kong dollar but was weaker against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen compared with the previous trading day.

So far this year, the Chinese currency has climbed 2,835 basis points from 7.8087 yuan to the dollar on the last trading day of 2006.

The People's Bank of China on May 21 further widened the yuan's band for daily spot trading on the interbank market from 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2007)