BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The continued appreciation of China's currency has been temporarily hampered by two pieces of news from the United States, the Shanghai Securities News reported Friday.

    After five consecutive trading days of strengthening against the US dollars, Chinese currency declined over the past two days.

    According to the middle price announced by the China Foreign Exchange Trading System on Thursday and Friday, one dollar was equal to 8.0062 and 8.0082 yuan respectively, rising 14 basis points and 20 basis points from the previous trading day.

    On May 10, the US Federal Reserve raised its benchmark short-term interest rate by a quarter-percentage point to 5 percent, the 16th consecutive time since June 2004 and the highest level in five years.

    On the same day the U.S. Treasury Department said China was not a currency manipulator, which insiders believe would alleviate U.S. long-term pressure upon China over the exchange rate issue.

    The newspaper ascribed yuan's temporary depreciation mainly to the above two factors. The United States and some other Western nations have accused China of intentionally under-valuing its currency so as to boost exports.

    China will go on reforming its foreign exchange rate system, and make its forex rate more flexible, said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao Thursday when commenting on the US Treasury Department's remarks. Enditem