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China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan says media reports about the expected appreciation of the Chinese currency on May 18 are "not correct."

In an interview with the Xinhua news agency on Friday, he said speculation about the reminbi has come from foreign institutions and individuals, and the reports are not credible.

The governor said at a meeting at the China Academy of Social Sciences that a new round of speculation on the yuan revaluation is the result of excessive reporting of the issue.

Zhou stressed that as a big country, China has to carry out reform to taxation, interest rates and the exchange rate according its own needs.

But he noted that the country would take other countries into account in reforming its financial system due to China’s impact on the global economy.

Before the May Day holidays, there was wide speculation in the Chinese stock market that the government would loosen control over its decade-old foreign exchange regime.

The central bank quickly ruled out the possibility of currency policy change.

China has kept the yuan in a tight range near 8.28 per dollar since the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.

Analysts placed their bets on next possible date for the currency policy change.

China's Foreign Exchange Trade Center, an affiliate of the forex regulator, said last month that it would launch trading in eight new currency pairs on May 18.

Such a move could be an optimum timing for the currency reform, according to analysis by Goldman Sachs earlier this year.

It is considered by the center that an active forex market will help the government to improve its policy decisions on the reform of the yuan exchange rate system and serve as a test platform for the yuan's full convertibility.