Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said here Thursday that he expects China to allow gradual appreciation of its currency Renminbi (RMB), according to Channel NewsAsia report at night.

"They are not going to have any sudden shift in their position.. .I do not see them leaping. They will go up gradually and slowly without disrupting their growth," Lee was quoted as saying at a meeting organized by accounting company Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

He said that China understands market economics and is well advised by the World Bank and other central bankers.

He cautioned that if other countries impose tariffs on China, the cost of living in these countries will rise.

In July 21 last year, China revalued the exchange rate of the RMB yuan to the U.S. dollar by 2.1 percent to 8.11, abolishing the yuan to the dollar pegging system applied in the past few years.

The central bank also announced the adoption of a managed float to an undisclosed basket of foreign currencies, allowing the trading price between the dollar and the yuan to float within a 0. 3 percent band around the official central parity.

Currently, the exchange rate of the RMB yuan to the U.S. dollar is around 8.