(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-11-08 11:26

The yuan, China's currency, climbed 225 basis points to break the 7.43 mark on Thursday, with the central parity rate at 7.4251 yuan against one US dollar, according to the Chinese Foreign Exchange Trading System.

Yuan and dollar banknotes are seen in this file photo. [newsphoto]

Thursday's parity rates against other currencies are: 10.8763 against one Euro, 0.95622 on Hong Kong dollar, and 15.6124 on British pound, according to a Xinhua report.

The yuan broke the 7.46 mark at 7.4552 yuan against one US dollar only last Thursday.

This was the 69th new high the yuan has hit since the beginning of this year, up more than four percent accumulatively.

The accumulative appreciation since July 21, 2005, when China discontinued yuan's peg to the greenback, has exceeded 8.3 percent.

And on the global financial market, the US dollar tumbled on Wednesday to a fresh low against the euro and other major world currencies.

The euro barreled through the 1.46-dollar and 1.47-dollar levels, climbing as high as 1.4731 dollars at the market. The dollar also slid against the Japanese currency to 112.55 yen, down from 114.72 Tuesday.

The US currency hit a 26-year low against the British pound at 2.1072 dollars and a record low of 0.9091 against Canadian dollars.

The beleaguered greenback now faces mounting pressure from fears of a US economic recession and expectations of a further cut in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve.

Market expectations are rising for a further rate cut when the Fed meets on December 11 because of an expected sharp economic slowdown due to a deepening housing slump and a subsequent crisis in the high-risk subprime mortgage sector.