China's currency, the renminbi (RMB), hit a new high against the U.S. dollar on Thursday breaking the 7.36 mark. The central parity rate stood at 7.3568 yuan against one dollar, the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System said.

It was the 78th occasion this year that the yuan had reached a new high against the greenback.

The yuan climbed 79 basis points from its previous trading of 7.3647 yuan against one dollar.

As of Thursday, the Chinese currency had climbed 4,519 basis points, or 5.79 percent, from the 7.8087 yuan against one U.S. dollar mark set on the last day of trading in 2006.

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

On Thursday, the yuan was lower against both the euro and British pound, with the central parity rate standing at 10.8325 yuan and 15.0395 yuan respectively.

Meanwhile, the yuan gained against the Japanese yen and the Hong Kong dollar to stand at 6.5724 yuan against 100 Japanese yen and 0.94332 yuan against one Hong Kong dollar.

(Xinhua News Agency December 13, 2007)