China's yuan finished on Wednesday a few ticks shy of its strongest close to the dollar since the July revaluation, as state media cited a central bank official as saying the currency would appreciate in the long run.
The yuan, which was revalued by 2.1 percent to 8.11 per dollar on July 21, closed at 8.0867 versus Tuesday's 8.0901. Its highest close since the revaluation was at 8.0864 to the greenback.
Wu Xiaoling, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, was quoted by the China Securities Journal on Wednesday as saying that the yuan would indeed strengthen over time, though there would be zigzags during that process.
Also, dealers cited US dollar movements on global markets as helping to prop up the yuan. The dollar struggled to recover from Tuesday's losses as a fall in consumer confidence prompted worries about the pace of US economic growth and what this might mean for future interest rate policy.
"The yuan opened 31 ticks stronger than yesterday's close, obviously reflecting the weakness of the greenback," said a trader with a Shanghai lender.
The yuan weakened against the euro to close at 9.7957 compared with 9.6681 on Tuesday. It softened to end at 7.0204 per 100 yen from 6.9899, the central bank said on its Web site.