RMB seen more active currency globally, CBA report

Chinese currency Renminbi (RMB) became a more active currency globally in 2021, reported Xinhua Finance citing a report released by China Banking Association (CBA) on Thursday.

In 2021, RMB was the second most active currency in China's cross-border payment and receipt, the fifth largest currency in global foreign exchange (forex) reserve and the eighth largest currency in global forex trading, showed statistics cited in the report named RMB internationalization report (2021-2022).

By the end of 2021, Chinese central bank, the People's Bank of China (PBOC), has founded 27 RMB clearing banks in countries and regions in Southeast Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Oceania, the Middle East and Africa.

Positive progress was made in the internationalization of RMB in terms of growth in cross-border payment and receipt in 2021.

PBOC data showed that China's RMB cross-border payment and receipt totaled 36.6 trillion yuan in 2021, up 29.0 percent year on year. The figure took up an all time high 48.4 percent of the total cross-border payment and receipt of China denominated in local and foreign currencies in 2021, up about one percentage point from the previous year.

As one of the most popular reserve currencies, RMB continued to gain favor from international investors in 2021 when RMB-denominated bonds were the largest type of assets held by overseas non-residential holders.

By the end of 2021, overseas institutions and individuals held in total 4.09 trillion yuan of China bonds, up 22.65 percent year on year which marked the eighth consecutive year of growth since 2014.