The yuan is expected to remain flat this week after appreciating quite rapidly last week.

The Chinese currency ended at 7.3715 to one United States dollar last Friday, up from 7.4030 a week earlier. The yuan rose for five trading days through Thursday.

The yuan is likely to hover around 7.37 for the rest of the year, said traders. Economists expect the yuan to quicken its pace of appreciation in 2008 amid a "tight" monetary policy.

The yuan has already appreciated about 10 percent since its decade-long peg to the greenback in July 2005 was scrapped. The yuan has risen about six percent this year.

Stephen Green, a Standard Chartered Bank senior economist, expects the yuan to touch 6.84 against the greenback at the end of 2008, from a previously forecast of 7.00.

(Shanghai Daily December 17, 2007)