China's currency, the yuan, hit a new high on Tuesday against the US dollar on Tuesday at 7.5545 yuan to US$ 1, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.

The central parity rate of the yuan, also known as Renminbi (RMB), stood at 7.5545 yuan to US$ 1 on Tuesday, gaining 84 basis points from Monday's reference rate of 7.5629 to the greenback.

It is the third time the yuan's value challenged the 7.56 level, after it hit 7.5596 on July 25 and 7.5598 on August 6. It is also the 55th time since the beginning of this year that RMB reached a new high against the US dollar.

The Chinese currency has climbed 2,542 basis points from 7.8087 yuan to US$ 1 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, on May 21 widened the floating band of yuan against US dollar for daily spot trading on the interbank market from 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent.

On Tuesday, the yuan also gained ground against the euro, the British pound and the Hong Kong dollar, but lost 526 basis points from the previous trading day to reach a central parity rate of 6.5407 yuan against 100 Japanese yuan.

(Xinhua News Agency August 28 2007)