Non-China deals rise to 18pc of Hong Kong yuan trades
Yuan trades between counterparties based outside China rose to 18 per cent of the deals in the currency settled in Hong Kong.
Yuan trades between counterparties based outside China rose to 18 per cent of the deals in the currency settled in Hong Kong, as Asia’s biggest economy seeks a greater role for its currency in global trade.
The transactions were part of 2.1 trillion yuan (US$336 billion) of trades in the first 10 months of the year, said Norman Chan, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central bank.
That compares with 10 per cent in all of 2010, according to an HKMA spokesman who asked not to be identified and didn’t provide 2011 figures.
Hong Kong, designated as China’s major offshore yuan trading hub in the nation’s latest five-year plan, handled 1.93 trillion yuan of trade settlements in the currency in the first nine months, exceeding the total for all of 2011.
The city’s banks are lobbying China to relax restrictions on the business as competition from London, Singapore and Taiwan intensifies.
“As the yuan internationalises and is used more in cross- border payments, trades among the offshore markets are also settled in yuan and are handled through Hong Kong,” Chan told reporters in Beijing on Thursday after meetings with mainland Chinese officials including banking and securities regulators.
