The Chinese yuan’s share in global foreign exchange (forex) trading climbed to 8.5 per cent this year while maintaining its position as the world’s fifth-most traded currency, according to survey findings by the so-called central bank for central banks.
The proportion, unveiled by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in its 2025 Triennial Central Bank Survey – launched in April, with the findings released on Tuesday – showed an increase from 7 per cent in the 2022 survey, with the yuan’s ranking unchanged.
The results come as Beijing has been pushing to promote the yuan in global trade and finance. Policymakers see greater yuan adoption as a means to reduce reliance on the US dollar, which the BIS said had slightly increased its forex dominance in the past three years.
In 2022, the BIS survey found that the yuan had risen to fifth place in global forex trading, from eighth place in 2019. And this year’s findings noted that the yuan’s market-share gains extended an upwards trajectory dating back to 2013, when it accounted for just 2.2 per cent of forex trading.
Forex trading is one of the key measures of a currency’s internationalisation. Others include global payments, central bank reserves and commodity pricing.
“The international use of the yuan still does not match China’s size in the global economy and trade,” analysts from China International Capital Corporation, led by chief strategist Miao Yanliang, said in a note on Tuesday.
Amid signs of a “crack in the US dollar’s credibility”, they suggested China expand its supply of yuan-denominated safe assets and increase the yuan’s role in settlement and commodity pricing, to further promote the currency’s international use.
