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Saturday, January 31, 2015

Chinese Currency Marches on Towards Worldwide Useage & Other News

Things may be stalled on reforms at the IMF, but China just keeps marching along on its path to global acceptance for the Yuan/Renminbi. This BRICSPOST article notes that the Yuan is steadily climbing as a global payment currency. It has now passed the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar. The Chinese are clearly working hard to get the Yuan on the same level of acceptance as the Euro, Pound, and the US dollar.

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"The value of cross-border deals settled in the Chinese currency, yuan, more than doubled in 2014, shows new data from SWIFT showed Wednesday. China’s policy makers are seeking to boost the currency’s convertibility and global use."

"The yuan reached a record high share of 2.17 per cent in global payments by value in 2014.The U.S. dollar, euro and British pound remain the top three world payment currencies.The yuan surpassed the euro in 2013 to become the second-most used currency in global trade finance."
“It is a great testimony to the internationalisation of the RMB and confirms its transition from an ‘emerging’ to a ‘business as usual’ payment currency,” Wim Raymaekers, head of banking markets at SWIFT, said in the statement on Wednesday."
. . . .
"Last week, Zurich joined a growing list of international hotspots like Sydney, Seoul, Paris, Luxembourg, London, Frankfurt, Singapore and Hong Kong which are already global centres for trading the yuan."
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My added comments:  If you read this blog you already know why China is working so hard. They want the Yuan/Renminbi added to the SDR basket of currencies at the IMF later this year. If that doesn't happen, we need to watch how the BRICS and China especially react to that. Failure to get more voting power at the IMF and continuing to exclude the Yuan will be a double hit to China. The Chinese are very patient, but at some point patience runs out.
Other news: It's been a busy week with a lot of news out. Below are links to other news stories that relate to what we follow here:

US GDP comes in at 2.4% for 2014

Russia to start up alternative to Visa and Mastercard by May 2015

CNBC: Why so many are hiding cash

Corporate 'Tax Holiday' Proposal gains momentum

Russia surprises with interest rate cut

Fed's Bullard warns of asset bubble risk

Cyber attacks - growing in frequency

The confrontation in Greece is just getting started. The situation in the Ukraine is very bad and not looking likely to improve soon. The US stock market is showing signs of weakness and many expect first quarter earnings to be hurt by the very strong US dollar.

Nothing is really changed so far this year. We continue to have a surreal atmosphere where the US economy has elements of improvement even while there are still signs of stress and volatility. Europe, Japan, and Russia are really struggling. China is seeing growth, but it too is slowing down. All the risks of asset bubbles, currency wars, and derivatives are still out there, but the extent of the risks is mostly unknown. It just means we have a lot to keep track of and monitor this year.

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