Chinese yuan assets becoming increasingly popular among overseas investors: report

BEIJING - The opening up of China's financial market has made yuan-denominated assets more alluring for overseas investors, and promoted global use of the Chinese currency, said a latest report by the People's Bank of China.

By the end of 2021, overseas entities had held 10.83 trillion yuan (about $1.55 trillion) worth of yuan assets including equities, bonds, loans and deposits, up 20.5 percent year on year, the report added.

Cross-border settlements in yuan have also surged, with those used for current account and direct investment totaling 6 trillion yuan in the first half of this year, up 23 percent over a year ago. Yuan settlements in cross-border e-commerce trade rose 20.7 percent from the same period last year to 431.7 billion yuan, according to the report.

Over 80 overseas central banks or currency authorities had the yuan in their forex reserves, said the report.

In the first quarter of this year, the Chinese currency accounted for 2.88 percent of global forex reserves, up 1.8 percentage points from 2016 when it entered the International Monetary Fund's Special Drawing Rights basket, said the report, citing IMF data.