Yuan at 17-year high as gains likely to be tolerated

China's yuan advanced to a 17-year high after the central bank fixed the currency stronger for a fifth day amid speculation gains will be tolerated to contain inflation. Conditions are ripe for appropriately expanding the yuan's trading band against the dollar, the China Securities Journal wrote on Tuesday in a front-page editorial. The currency has advanced 0.8 per cent in August as inflation accelerated to its fastest pace in three years and the trade surplus widened. The People's Bank of China set the reference rate 0.04 per cent stronger at a record 6.3925 per dollar. "The trend is for more yuan gains going forward," said Brian Jackson, a senior strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong. "There's an incentive to move more on the currency to get inflation lower. Exports so far have been holding up pretty well." The yuan rose 0.12 per cent to 6.3828 per dollar in Shanghai, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.