China yuan strengthens to new high against USD

The Chinese currency Renminbi, or the yuan, marched to a new record high against the U.S. dollar on Monday.

The yuan strengthened 58 basis points to reach 6.095 per U.S. dollar, the strongest since July 2005, when the country launched reforms of the exchange rate mechanism, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System.

The yuan's rise was partly attributed to the poor U.S. non-farm payroll data. The world's biggest economy added only 74,000 non-farm jobs in December, far less than what the most conservative analysts forecast.

The People's Bank of China, or the central bank, on Friday set the dollar-yuan central parity rate at 6.1008.

In China's foreign exchange spot market, the yuan is allowed to rise or fall by 1 percent from the central parity rate each trading day.

The central parity rate of the yuan against the U.S. dollar is based on a weighted average of prices before the opening of the market each business day.