BEIJING/Chongqing-The opening up of China’s financial market has made yuan-denominated assets more alluring for overseas investors, and promoted global use of the Chinese currency, said a latest report by the People’s Bank of China.
By the end of 2021, overseas entities had held 10.83 trillion yuan (about 1.55 trillion U.S. dollars) worth of yuan assets including equities, bonds, loans and deposits, up 20.5 percent year on year, the report added. Cross-border settlements in yuan have also surged, with those used for current account and direct investment totaling 6 trillion yuan in the first half of this year, up 23 percent over a year ago. Yuan settlements in cross-border e-commerce trade rose 20.7 percent from the same period last year to 431.7 billion yuan, according to the report.
Over 80 overseas central banks or currency authorities had the yuan in their forex reserves, said the report. In the first quarter of this year, the Chinese currency accounted for 2.88 percent of global forex reserves, up 1.8 percentage points from 2016 when it entered the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Special Drawing Rights basket, said the report, citing IMF data.
Meanwhile, the foreign trade of southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality grew 10.4 percent year on year to reach 560.43 billion yuan (about 80.15 billion U.S. dollars) in the first eight months of 2022, according to the city’s customs authorities. Exports rose 14.2 percent year on year to 365.37 billion yuan, while imports gained 3.9 percent to hit 195.06 billion yuan.
From January to August, the imports and exports of foreign-invested enterprises in Chongqing reached 263.07 billion yuan, up 10.1 percent year on year. The imports and exports of private enterprises reached 252.99 billion yuan, up 14 percent year on year.
During the period, Chongqing’s foreign trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union and the United States went up 5.6 percent, 4.1 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, from the same period last year. Meanwhile, the municipality’s trade with other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership grew by 14.7 percent year on year, while its trade with countries along the Belt and Road registered a year-on-year increase of 9.1 percent.