RMB enjoys record-high activity on global markets in Feb

LONDON - February saw the Renminbi(RMB), or China's yuan, enjoy a record-high activity share on the global foreign exchange markets with 1.42 percent of business, data revealed Wednesday by SWIFT RMB tracker revealed.

RMB's 1.42 percent share was up from 1.39 percent in the same month a year earlier. However, in the global rankings of currency RMB fell back behind the Swiss Franc by 0.03 percentage points to become the eighth most-used global currency.

London retained its position as the No 1 global location for offshore dealing in RMB, excluding Hong Kong, according to the tracker figures. Asian RMB hubs had improved their position in the global rankings, particularly Taiwan and Singapore.

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Astrid Thorsen, markets manager with Business Intelligence Services, told Xinhua Wednesday afternoon, "The exchange value in February is a slight decline on January, but that is down to Chinese New Year, and that is always an influence on RMB."

At global level, RMB payments decreased in value by 8.5 percent February compared to January, set against a background of all currencies decreased by 10.7 percent during that same period.

The overall negative trend may be due to February being a shorter month.

Thorsen put the current level of activity in RMB on the foreign exchanges into an historical perspective, "When we started tracking RMB around two years ago, the yuan activity share was at 0.25 percent and the rank of the currency was in the top 20."

"But in the past four months it has moved into the top 10; it is a major progression, overtaking many currencies," Thorsen added.

The RMB had overtaken the Swiss Franc in the SWIFT RMB tracker in January, but had in turn been overtaken by it for February.

Thorsen commented, "There is always going to be some volatility when the nations' share of the market is so close." "This is not really a reversal, because the activity share of the RMB is good," Thorsen added.

Michael Moon, Director, Payments Markets, Asia Pacific, at SWIFT, told Xinhua that this kind of volatility in global national rankings for currencies was typical and could last several months.

Moon said, "I remember when the RMB overtook the Thai Baht, it slipped below the Thai Baht the following month, but in terms of market share it is now well ahead and has confirmed its market trend, despite a little bit of volatility."