SWIFTS’s latest RMB tracker has shown that Chinese Renminbi (RMB) payments have grown in value by 171 percent between January 2012 and January 2013.
The RMB grew in value by 24 percent in January this year whilst the Russian Rouble (RUB) dropped by 5.4 percent.
In December 2012, the RMB was larger than the Danish Krone, South African Rand and New Zealand Dollar. And after its recent growth it has now overtaken the RUB to become the 13th most popular worlds payment currency.
Lisa O’Connor, global RMB director at SWIFT, said: “We’ll have to see if the drop in RUB is systemic, but it is clear that offshore centres like Hong Kong, London and Singapore are fuelling RMB payments.”
“RMB payments in Singapore grew by 123 percent year-on-year and by 33 percent in the last month. The recent appointment of ICBC as the RMB clearing bank in Singapore can only support that. Given the acceleration of RMB payments it will be interesting to see if the RMB displaces the THB in coming months.”
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