Chinese yuan Photo:VCG

The Chinese yuan strengthens to 6.82 against the US dollar on Tuesday morning, reaching a new high in over three years. The yuan's robust performance underscores the resilience of China's economic fundamentals and demonstrates the rational return of foreign exchange market expectations, Chinese analysts said, noting that a rational global asset portfolio should give due consideration to yuan-denominated assets.

The spot exchange rate of the yuan against the US dollar opened at 6.8209 on Tuesday, and subsequently strengthened to 6.82, marking the first time it had reached this mark since March 24, 2023. By 2 pm, the onshore yuan touched 6.8182, while the offshore yuan stood at 6.8156, according to Beijing Daily.

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, on Tuesday set the central parity rate for the yuan, or renminbi, 64 basis points stronger than the previous day at 6.8593. This daily fixing, around which the onshore yuan is permitted to trade 2 percent higher or lower, is announced each morning.

"The robust performance of the Chinese yuan amid notable fluctuations in the global foreign exchange market is a joint effect of multiple factors, but the core lies in the solid fundamentals and strong resilience of the Chinese economy," Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Li pointed to positive macro-economic figures recently released. For instance, the purchasing managers' index for China's manufacturing sector stood at 50.4 in March, up 1.4 percentage points from the previous month, rebounding into the expansionary zone in March and signaling impressive pickup in economic vitality, he said.

Tian Lihui, head of the Institute of Financial Development at Nankai University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the recent trend in the Chinese yuan demonstrates the rational return of foreign exchange market expectations, while marking the improvement in the yuan's elasticity and autonomous balance capacity.

"Supported by both China's export resilience and policies to expand domestic demand, the yuan is likely to remain stable with a slight upward bias and two-way fluctuations in the future," Tian said.

He said that amid rising geopolitical tensions, yuan-denominated assets are increasingly becoming global safe-haven assets. "In the short term, the yuan will increasingly play an anchor currency role within regional economic and trade circles. In the medium to long term, driven by the dual engines of digital currency and green finance, the yuan is expected to upgrade from a transaction currency to a reserve currency," Tian said, noting that a rational global asset allocation portfolio should give consideration to the yuan.

In March, the daily transaction value via the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System reached 920.5 billion yuan ($134.77 billion), surging 48 percent compared with the trading value recorded in the previous month and hitting a new record high in nearly a year, the Securities Daily reported on Tuesday, citing data from the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System.

PBC Governor Pan Gongsheng emphasized during the China Development Forum 2026 that the steady promotion of high-level opening up of the financial sector, deepening financial market connectivity and cross-border payment system interoperability to facilitate broader investor participation in China's financial markets.

Official data showed that governments of multiple countries, international development institutions, financial institutions, and large enterprises issued panda bonds worth more than 170 billion yuan in 2025, and the scale of offshore yuan bonds issued in Hong Kong was even larger.

"Looking ahead, the yuan will continue to attract the inflow of foreign capital, backed by its stable exchange rate, strong safe-haven attributes, the relatively high allocation value of yuan-denominated assets, and its rising international status," Li said.