The Chinese renminbi marched to a record high against the US dollar on Thursday, adding to a recent burst of appreciation and spurring talk that Beijing is poised to soon let the currency trade more freely.
Over the past three weeks the renminbi has gained 0.6 per cent against the dollar, an unusually fast rise for the tightly controlled Chinese currency and one that has come even as the dollar has been relatively strong.
The renminbi’s upward trajectory continued on Thursday after a three-day public holiday, with the central bank setting a record high in its daily fixing of the reference rate for the currency. During the day’s trading, the renminbi reached 6.1537 against the dollar, its strongest ever.