Chinese Central Bank Commits to Internationalisation of the Renminbi

A new report from the Chinese central bank points to increasing offshore usage of the renminbi in 2019.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) released the “2020 Renminbi Internationalisation Report” (2020年人民币国际化报告) on 14 August, in which it committed to “steady internationalisation of the yuan to serve the real economy in accordance with market principles.”

According to the report 2019 saw rapid growth in global usage of the Chinese currency, with the full year renminbi cross-border receipt and payment amount rising 24.1% YoY to hit a record high of 1.967 billion yuan (approx. USD$283.01 million).

As of the end of 2019 PBOC had established renminbi settlement banks in 25 countries and regions, and the renminbi was the world’s fifth most used currency for cross-border settlements.

In the first quarter the renminbi’s share of global foreign reserves rose to a record high of 2.02%.

Wu Xi­ao­qiu (吴晓求), di­rec­tor of the Fi­nance and Se­cu­ri­ties In­sti­tute at Ren­min Uni­ver­sity, said that renminbi internationalisation and financial opening would be key reform goals for China at the 2020 In­ter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fo­rum (国际货币论坛) on 25 July.

Related stories

RMB In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion and Fi­nan­cial Open­ing are the Chi­na’s Key Re­form Goals: Wu Xi­ao­qiu

In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion of the Ren­minbi Will Re­quire Digi­ti­sa­tion: BO­COM Head Liu Jun

CSRC Of­fi­cial Says Ren­minbi In­ter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion Needed to Avoid Chi­na’s Ex­clu­sion from US Dol­lar Sys­tem