Europe now represents 10 percent by value of global payments in China’s currency, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) said yesterday, as more countries seek a greater share of yuan business through new currency clearing arrangements.
Although Hong Kong is the dominant center for offshore yuan trading, four European countries are in the top 10, the transactions organization said.
They are Britain, France, Germany and Luxembourg, all of which have reached agreements with China’s central bank for yuan-clearing in their countries, it said.
Over the past year, Britain’s yuan payments have surged nearly 124 percent, France has jumped almost 44 percent, Germany has soared 116 percent and Luxembourg gained around 42 percent, the organization said in a statement, although it gave no values.
China is trying to make the yuan used more widely internationally.
It has agreed to yuan clearing centers in several European countries over the past year.
In the statement, Michael Moon, SWIFT’s head of payments and yuan for the Asia-Pacific region, said that the announcements “have boosted the yuan trading activities in these countries.”
Last month the yuan remained the seventh-most used global payment currency — unchanged from June — with a 1.57 percent share, SWIFT said.
China keeps a tight grip on the value of its currency and limits capital flows into and out of the country due to fears they could disrupt the economy.
However, authorities have tried to further liberalize the yuan’s movements and create a more market-oriented exchange rate.
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