China is trying to improve its yuan exchange rate mechanism and aims to make the currency more flexible in the medium to long term, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"In the medium and long term, the renminbi exchange rate will develop in the direction of increased flexibility," Xinhua quoted central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan as saying in a written speech on Saturday to the International Monetary and Financial Committee in Washington.
It did not define the time-frame for reforms of the fixed exchange rate regime, blamed most notably by US manufacturers on being kept undervalued and keeping Chinese exports unfairly cheap at the cost of US manufacturing jobs.
Financial markets have speculated that China might begin pegging the yuan, also known as the renminbi, to a basket of currencies representing key trading partners rather than just the US dollar possibly as early as this year.
Such a move, analysts say, could lead to an appreciation of the yuan that has been pegged to the dollar since 1996 and trades in a razor-thin band from 8.276 to 8.280 under what Beijing calls a "managed float".
The International Monetary and Financial Committee is the policy-making body of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which together with the World Bank has been holding semi-annual meetings.