Trade War Hands China Chance to Globalize Yuan, Central Banker Says

(Bloomberg) --

The Chinese yuan is being given a new opportunity to boost its global status amid rising trade conflicts, according to People’s Bank of China Deputy Governor Pan Gongsheng.

“Amid frequent trade frictions and rising populism, some countries and regions are emphasizing the use of local currency in cross-border settlement, bringing about new opportunities for the yuan’s globalization,” Pan wrote in an article published on the PBOC-backed China Finance magazine’s website.

The bank will work to promote global investors’ confidence in the yuan and steadily promote the currency’s global use -- although it’ll be mostly a market-driven effort, he wrote.

For now, less than 2% of global transactions are settled in the yuan, according to data released by Swift, an international payment institution. The share fell back from a peak of 2.79% in August 2015, when the International Monetary Fund agreed to add the yuan into its reserve currency basket.

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