(01 March 2013 – Asia) The renminbi (RMB) now ranks as the 13th currency on the world payments currency list according to a new source.According to the source’s latest RMB tracker, it has already overtaken the Russian Rouble (RUB) and continues its ascension towards becoming a major international payments currency.
In December 2012, the RMB was larger than the Danish Krone, South African Rand and New Zealand Dollar and has now overtaken the Russian Rouble to take position 13 as a world payments currency.
The source said RMB payments grew in value by 171 percent between January 2012 and January 2013. The last month alone saw a 24 percent increase, versus 13 percent across all currencies, propelling it to an all-time high market share of 0.63 percent.
In the same year, the RUB grew by only 18 percent and lost 5.4 percent in the last month, making it drop to 0.56 percent market share.
“We’ll have to see if the drop in RUB is systemic,” the source reported, “but it is clear that offshore centres like Hong Kong, London and Singapore are fuelling RMB payments.
RMB payments in Singapore grew by 123 percent year-on-year and by 33 percent in the last month. The recent appointment of ICBC as the RMB clearing bank in Singapore can only support that.
Given the acceleration of RMB payments it will be interesting to see if the RMB displaces the THB in coming months.