China's currency, the yuan, gained 29 basis points on Wednesday against the US dollar to breach the 7.64 mark for the first time, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.

 

The central parity rate of the yuan, also known as Renminbi (RMB), stood at 7.6398 yuan to the US dollar, showing a strong fortifying momentum on the second day after the yuan's value exceeded 7.65 on Tuesday.

 

The yuan has climbed 1,689 basis points from 7.8087 yuan to one US dollar posted on the last trading day of 2006.

 

The accumulative appreciation since July 21, 2005, when China discontinued yuan's peg to the greenback, has exceeded 7.5 percent.

 

The People's Bank of China, or the central bank, announced on May 18 that it would widen the floating band of yuan against the dollar for daily spot trading on the inter-bank market from 0.3 to 0.5 percent from May 21.

 

The yuan rose against the US dollar by 0.72 percent in May, the record for a single month since July 2005.

 

On Wednesday, the yuan lost 72 basis points from the previous trading day to reach a central parity rate of 10.3237 yuan against the euro. And it fell 106 basis points to 6.2887 yuan against 100 Japanese yen.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2007)