China’s yuan makes little progress to dethrone the US dollar as global currency, survey finds
- Yuan’s share of international currency transactions only 4.3 per cent, compared to 88 per cent for US dollar, Bank for International Settlements finds
- Foreign exchange trading activity rises to eighth place globally, with London still at top of rankings
China’s effort to promote the yuan as a global currency has made only marginal progress in the last three years, according to an international survey conducted by the Bank for International Settlements.
The yuan kept its ranking as the world’s eighth most-traded currency, with a daily average turnover of US$284 billion, up from US$202 billion three years ago, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) triennial survey of foreign exchange, indicating that it is evolving into an international currency very slowly.
The yuan’s share of all currency trades rose to 4.3 per cent from the 4.0 per cent in the 2016 snapshot, the survey showed.
By comparison, the US dollar retained its place as the world’s dominant currency, with a turnover of US$5.82 trillion. The US dollar was on one side of 88 per cent of all currency trades, little changed from three years ago. It was also the second currency in 95 per cent of all yuan-denominated transactions.
The euro was the second most-traded currency, involved in 32 per cent of all transactions, while the Japanese yen remained in third place with a share of 17 per cent.