Yuan plays an increasingly prominent trade role

The yuan has slipped past the euro to become the second most used currency in trade finance after the U.S. dollar. We are indebted to SWIFT, the financial transaction services company, for this piece of intelligence. Its data is for October. It is a vindication of China’s push to make the currency more reflective of China’s position as a global trading power. However, the dollar still accounts for four out of every five dollars financing global trade, while the yuan accounts for barely one in twelve. In terms of all payments, the yuan ranks twelfth with a less than 1% market share.