Great Graphic: The Evolution of the China's Renminbi

These Great Graphics comes from a slide show put together by SWIFT, the Society for World Wide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, which is the messaging system that provides indispensable linkage in the foreign exchange trading..

The first chart shows the increased use of the China\s renminibi or yuan for payments.  It documents what is already widely appreciated and that is trade between China and its Special Administrative Region (SAR) Hong Kong is largely (79%) in yuan.  This has been a fairly stable share for almost two years.

There has also been a modest increase in the share accounted for by other countries.  The second chart shows that among these other countries, France is the first euro area country to be an off shore market for the yuan.  Over the past year, the amount of yuan traded in France has risen by almost 250%.  A little more than a fifth of the payments between France and China/Hong Kong were denominated in yuan, up from about 1/7 a year ago. 

The last chart offers two snap shots of the yuan's share of global payments.  In January 2012, it was in 20th place with a 0.25% share.  By March 2013 it had moved into 13th place with a 0.74% market share.