Don Kenobi
/ 83.5.64.* / 2009-07-09 09:48
Chiny coraz mocniej zastępują dolara własną walutą wprowadzając jednocześnie różne ułatwienia dla firm handlujących z zagranicą.
China is planning to use the yuan in lieu of foreign currencies such as the US dollar to settle trade transactions within three years. The volume should reach almost US$ 2 trillion and involve designated mainland areas, Hong Kong, Macau and members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
At present the yuan is not freely convertible, and transactions between Chinese and foreign companies have to be done in foreign currencies, especially dollars. But recently Beijing designated 400 companies that could settle trade in yuan, part of a long-term plan to make the yuan an international currency and reduce the country's reliance on the dollar.
Under the yuan trade settlement scheme Chinese authorities expect exporters and importers to benefit from lower costs and exchange rate risks.
At the same time Beijing has introduced a series of measures, including tax breaks, trade finance and currency swap deals, in cooperation with other central banks to encourage wider use of the yuan.
For Qu Hongbin, an economist at HSBC, the “pace of [internationalisation of the yuan] is likely to be faster than many expect. [. . .] This could potentially lead to nearly US$ 2 trillion worth of annual trade flows.” This means that “40 to 50 per cent of the mainland's total trade” could “be settled in yuan each year by 2012.”