China will no longer peg the yuan against the dollar thanks to historic changes made on Thursday.

For the first time in a decade, the dollar peg was removed and China's central bank announced that the yuan would now be linked to a basket of currencies.

The news will come as good news to both the US and Europe, after several countries complained that China's currency was being kept unfairly low.

According to the central bank's website this morning, the yuan had been re-valued to 8.11 against the dollar, a difference of 2.1 per cent from its previous pegging of 8.28.

Analysts believe that the re-valuation could lead to the yuan eventually being floated on the foreign exchange markets.

Meanwhile, the platinum industry reacted to the news, with Impala Platinum marketing director Derek Engelbrecht telling Finance24 the firm expected the impact to be "mildly bullish" for the price of the precious metal.

The move could potentially cut the cost of platinum in China, adding a fillip to the domestic jewellery industry in a region which already consumes 20 per cent of the global supply of platinum.

Responding to the news platinum touched $882.5 per oz, a watermark since the start of the month.