China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high against the U.S. 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 Nov. 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-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2007)