The Chinese yuan has become the seventh-most widely used world currency as of January. Investors interested in gaining exposure to the Chinese currency can choose among a number of exchange traded funds that track yuan movements against the U.S. dollar.
According to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), China’s yuan surpassed the Swiss franc in world payments in January, becoming the seventh most widely used currency, reports Michelle Chen for Reuters.
Yuan-denominated payments rose 30.6%. Meanwhile, growth for all payment currencies increased 4.8% in January. Nevertheless, yuan payments were concentrated in Hong Kong, which made up 73% of market share.
“Looking at the first month of 2014, which was the highest payments value recorded for RMB so far, it is clear that the RMB is on its way to remaining a top 10 currency for global payments,” Michael Moon, SWIFT’s Asia Pacific director of payments markets, said in the article.
The renminbi, or RMB, is the official currency, and the yuan is considered a basic unit of the renminbi.
Over the past three years, the yuan has toppled 22 currencies in global payments usage and now ranks behind only the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Canadian and Australian dollars.
The yuan has appreciated 35% against the U.S. dollar since 2005. The currency, though, has recently depreciated against the greenback as the People’s Bank of China lowered its exchange rate to fight against speculative inflows.