BEIJING (MNI) - The People's Bank of China set the yuan's central parity rate at 6.8268 to the U.S. dollar on Thursday, slightly higher than the 6.8275 rate set Wednesday.

The yuan finished at 6.8272 against the US dollar on the over-the-counter (OTC) market Wednesday, up from the previous day's close of 6.8294.

Based on today's parity, the yuan is down 0.06% against the dollar since Jan. 1 this year and up 0.03% against the dollar year-on-year, according to Market News calculations.

The Chinese yuan ended October down 0.018% m/m against the U.S. dollar compared with September's 0.063% gain. At the end of October, the yuan was down 0.07% against the greenback since Jan. 1 but was up 0.11% year-on-year.

For all of 2008, the yuan gained 7.05%, the fastest appreciation pace since July 2005 but only slightly faster than the 6.86% rise seen in 2007. The majority of the yuan's rise against the dollar last year occurred in the first half, when the Chinese currency rose 6.6%, or a 13.2% annualized rate.

Today's fixing brings the yuan's gains against the greenback to 21.23% since currency reforms were announced on July 21, 2005, including that day's one-off 2.1% revaluation.

The yuan was set lower vs. the euro and the yen.

The PBOC set the yuan parity against the euro at 10.3238 today, down from the 10.2177 fixing the previous trading day.

Based on today's parity, the yuan has depreciated 6.44% against the euro since Jan. 1 this year and is down 13.96% against the euro year-on-year.

The yuan rose 10.43% against the euro in 2008, a turnaround from its 3.75% depreciation in 2007 and 6.69% drop in 2006.

The yuan was also fixed at 7.8132 to the Japanese yen, down from the previous session's 7.7164.

Based on today's parity, the yuan has fallen 3.18% against the yen since Jan. 1 and is down 8.05% against the yen year-on-year.

The yuan depreciated by 15.32% against the yen in 2008.

The People's Bank of China started setting a daily central parity rate on Jan. 4, 2007.

On July 21, 2005, China freed the yuan from its longstanding peg to the dollar in favor of a managed float with reference to a basket of currencies.

On May 21, 2007, the PBOC widened the daily fluctuation band for the yuan-dollar exchange rate to 0.5% from 0.3% on either side of the central parity rate.

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