The internationalization of the Chinese currency, the yuan or the renminbi, remains steady in the long run, despite a temporary setback last year due to a volatile exchange rate and capital outflow, according to a report published Saturday.
The RMB International Index (RII) came in at 2.26 in the last quarter of 2016, down 29.8 percent year on year, said the report from the International Monetary Institute of the Renmin University of China.
The index was 2.65, 3.03 and 2.78 in the first three quarters of 2016.
"The retreat will not change the long-term upward trend," Xiang Songzuo, deputy director of the institute, said at a press conference.
The RII, only 0.02 at the beginning of 2010, had seen a constant rising trend until hitting a peak of 3.91 in the third quarter of 2015.
The report attributed the temporary setback mainly to the yuan's weakening role in cross-border settlement amid flagging global trade and investment.
The yuan fell to sixth place among most-used world payment currencies at the end of 2016 with a market share of 1.67 percent, down from 2.31 percent at the end of 2015, according to the Belgium-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.
Xiang said his long-term bullish stance on the yuan's internationalization was based on the country's financial reforms and opening up, a solid national economy, and outward-looking strategies including the Belt and Road Initiative.
"The financial markets, which have opened wider to the rest of the world, have become the core driving force of the yuan's global journey," Xiang said.
A bond connect between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong started operation early this month, granting easier access to the world's third largest bond market. Similar stock links that opened in 2014 and 2016 prompted the MSCI's planned inclusion of 222 Chinese large cap stocks into its emerging markets index in June.
The International Monetary Fund in October officially added the yuan to its Special Drawing Rights, a recognition of the currency's global position.
To further step up the yuan's global drive, Xiang advised measures including continued financial opening up, support for outbound direct investment and improved financial infrastructure.
The RII comprehensively takes the currency's functions of pricing, settlement and international reserves into account. The internationalization level of currencies, from low to high, ranges from zero to 100.
Measured by the same compiling methods used for the RII, the index of the U.S. dollar was 54.02 in the fourth quarter of 2016, followed by 24.57 for the euro, 5.5 for the British pound and 4.26 for the Japanese yen, the report said.
