From The New York Times:

After at least two years of resisting intense political and diplomatic pressure from its biggest trading partners, China said on Thursday that it would no longer peg its currency strictly to the dollar, a step that could allow it to rise gradually in value over time.

The Chinese government said that the immediate appreciation of the yuan, its currency, would be modest, only about 2 percent of its value against the dollar, but that it would permit the yuan to fluctuate within a narrow, gradually shifting band against a group of foreign currencies.