Special report: Yuan's exchange rate in spotlight

    BEIJING, June 12 -- The yuan had its biggest weekly gain in 10 months last week as the country announced plans to remove restrictions on purchases of foreign currencies.

    The yuan closed at 8.0112 to the US dollar on Friday in Shanghai, a weekly gain of 0.14 percent. The exchange rate between the yuan and US dollar closed at 8.0220 on June 2 and 8.0250 on May 27.

    The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the country's top forex regulator, said on Thursday it will remove rules on how much foreign currency Chinese companies can buy to fund investment overseas.

    Chinese enterprises will move quickly to make acquisitions and other investments around the globe, analysts said. China set strict quotas on how much domestic firms can buy to invest in foreign countries and regions previously.

    China abandoned its currency's peg to the US dollar and made an one-time appreciation of the yuan of 2.1 percent on July 21. The yuan was previously fixed at about 8.3 percent before the appreciation. The yuan closed at 1.03194 to the Hong Kong dollar last week.

   (Source: Shanghai Daily)