(Kitco News) The yuan became the most-used currency in China’s cross-border payments in March, surpassing the U.S. dollar for the first time, Reuters cited official data. This development aligns with China’s plans to increase the use of the yuan internationally.
Yuan cross-border transactions and receipts were at a record of $549.9 billion last month, up from February’s $434.5 billion, Reuters referred to the numbers released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange.
The yuan-based transactions represented 48.4% of all cross-border payments. In comparison, the dollar-based transactions fell to 46.7% in March from 48.6% in February.
“The rise in yuan usage could be a natural consequence of China opening up its capital account, with rising inflows for China bonds and outflows for Hong Kong stocks,” Stephen Chiu, chief Asia foreign-exchange and rates strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a note.