Currency pair · cross of two ECB reference rates

What is the USD/CNY reference rate and how has it moved?

The USD/CNY reference rate was 6.68622 on 16 Oct 2026: one USD was worth 6.68622 CNY. That is 6.2% below a year earlier and 0% of the way up its 52-week range. Annualised volatility over the year was 2.1%.

USD/CNY · 16 Oct 2026: 6.68622Previous fixing 6.69102 (15 Oct 2026) · ▼ −0.07%
12-month change: ▼ −6.2%from 7.12585 on 16 Oct 2025
52-week range: 6.68622–7.12713low 16 Oct 2026 · high 5 Nov 2025
Volatility, 1 yr: 2.1%annualised; full-year average since 2016: 3.9%

The past twelve months

Daily ECB reference fixings, 16 Oct 2025 – 16 Oct 2026 (255 fixings). Yellow dot: latest.

What the record shows

Over the past year USD/CNY has been calmer than usual: 2.1% annualised volatility against a 3.9% average for full calendar years since 2016. Its calmest full year was 2025 (2.5%) and its busiest 2022 (6.5%).
Since 4 Jan 2016 the rate has ranged from 6.27460 (7 Feb 2018) to 7.34984 (9 Apr 2025). Today's fixing is higher than 30% of the 2,763 daily fixings in that period.
Five years ago, on 15 Oct 2021, the fixing was 6.43536, so the rate is 3.9% above that level. Over one month it is ▼ −0.31% (from 6.70712 on 16 Sept 2026).
The largest single-day move of the past year was on 7 Apr 2026: 6.89761 → 6.85740 (▼ −0.58%).
Read the other way round, 1 CNY was worth 0.14956 USD on 16 Oct 2026 (CNY/USD).

How is the USD/CNY figure on this page produced?

The ECB does not publish USD/CNY; it publishes each currency against the euro. The cross is the ratio of the two: CNY per euro ÷ USD per euro = 7.52400 ÷ 1.12530 = 6.68622 on 16 Oct 2026. Because both legs are fixed at the same moment, the cross is internally consistent, but it can differ slightly from a market quote at 14:10 CET. See how to calculate a cross rate.

Year by year

USD/CNY yearly close, change, high, low, average and volatility
Year	Close	Change	High	Low	Average	Vol.
2026 to date	6.68622	▼ −4.5%	6.99369 2 Jan	6.68622 16 Oct	6.81393	2.0%
2025	7.00102	▼ −4.1%	7.34984 9 Apr	6.99294 30 Dec	7.18736	2.5%
2024	7.29936	▲ +2.7%	7.29938 27 Dec	7.01111 27 Sept	7.19559	3.2%
2023	7.10489	▲ +3.0%	7.33978 8 Sept	6.72352 2 Feb	7.08463	4.7%
2022	6.89874	▲ +8.6%	7.31744 3 Nov	6.31038 28 Feb	6.73474	6.5%
2021	6.35238	▼ −2.8%	6.57202 1 Apr	6.34800 8 Dec	6.44911	3.2%
2020	6.53777	▼ −6.1%	7.15877 27 May	6.52504 30 Dec	6.90032	4.4%
2019	6.96146	▲ +1.2%	7.17866 3 Sept	6.68128 27 Feb	6.91138	4.0%
2018	6.87782	▲ +5.7%	6.97429 31 Oct	6.27460 7 Feb	6.61870	4.5%
2017	6.50746	▼ −6.3%	6.96052 3 Jan	6.46153 8 Sept	6.75870	3.5%
2016	6.94450	—	6.95933 28 Dec	6.45709 31 Mar	6.64441	3.0%

Change = last fixing of the year against the last fixing of the previous year (2016 has no prior close in this record). Vol. = annualised standard deviation of daily log changes within the year. 2026 runs to 16 Oct 2026.

Since January 2016

ECB reference fixings, thinned to about every fifth fixing for drawing; the tables use every fixing.

Largest one-day moves since 2016

Date	From	To	Move
11 Nov 2022	7.25176	7.10778	▼ −1.99%
4 Nov 2022	7.31744	7.18132	▼ −1.86%
26 Oct 2022	7.30879	7.17829	▼ −1.79%
5 Aug 2019	6.93841	7.03854	▲ +1.44%
29 Sept 2022	7.23461	7.13198	▼ −1.42%

Moves are measured between consecutive ECB fixings, so a move after a holiday can span more than one calendar day.

Sources

European Central Bank — euro foreign exchange reference rates (series EXR.D.USD+CNY.EUR.SP00.A, retrieved 16 Oct 2026 via the ECB Data Portal).
Method for crosses, ranges and volatility: methodology.