Insiders have ascribed the recent appreciation of the RMB to China's growing trade surplus and foreign exchange reserves.

The country's trade surplus last year soared 74 percent to a record 177.47 billion U.S. dollars.

China's foreign exchange reserve reached 1.06 trillion U.S. dollars at the end of 2006, the People's Bank of China announced on Monday.

The figure, which exceeds one trillion U.S. dollars for the first time, is 30 percent up on the end of 2005, according to the central bank.

As of Thursday, the RMB had risen by more than 4.3 percent since China's reform of the exchange rate system in July 2005.

1

2

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)