(Yicai Global) Nov. 7 -- The Chinese yuan remained the fifth or sixth most used settlement currency globally, and is expected to become the fourth, said Alain Raes, chief executive Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa with the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, at a sub-forum of the China Import Expo Bank of China held yesterday.

The yuan had a 1.9 percent share in the global payment in September, less than the 2.12 percent in August, but remained the fifth most used global payment currency, per a recent report by La Hulpe, Belgium-based SWIFT.

The Chinese currency has gained rapidly and risen to the fifth most used global payment currency from 10th or 11th and stayed in the fifth or sixth slot in the past year and a half, Raes said at the China International Import Expo ongoing at Shanghai's National Convention & Exhibition Center from Nov. 5 to Nov. 10. 

The yuan is likely to move up with its very stable basis to fourth in future, he also believes.

The US treasury department absolved China of manipulating the yuan exchange rate on Oct. 18. The redback's exchange rate against the US dollar rose to 6.98 in late October and has stayed around 6.9 ever since, with stable market expectations.

Various clearing centers are all instrumental, but Hong Kong remains the largest offshore yuan hub with a 20 percent market share. London is also a key offshore yuan clearinghouse outside China, he noted. 

Yuan internationalization must be advanced and the disparity between China's economic volume as the world's second-largest economy and the disproportional use of its currency must come into balance, Raes urged.

Editor: Ben Armour