On August 16, the Chinese Renminbi's (RMB) middle exchange rate against the US dollar was 7.5981, 60 basis points lower than the previous day. This was the fifth decline that RMB foreign exchange rate has experienced since August 9. Such consecutive setbacks of this kind are unprecedented since China's foreign exchange reform began.

Ding Zhijie, the deputy dean of the School of Finance and Banking under University of International Business and Economics said that the big fluctuation was quite normal given that RMB prices remained strong for a long time.

The US dollar index soared from 79.96 on August 6 to yesterday's 82.13. Affected by the US dollar's appreciation, China Foreign Exchange Trade System & National Interbank Funding Center showed that the RMB exchange rate against the US dollar closed at 7.6005 yesterday, the lowest so far.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (http://www.bbtnews.com.cn/news/domestic/2024.shtml)

(China.org.cn August 17 2007)