The internationalisation of the renminbi has been gathering momentum for some time now, but 2012 proved to be an exceptionally impressive year for its growth. According to payments system Swift, the value of payments using renminbi grew by 171% during the course of the year and in February 2013 overtook the New Zealand dollar and the Russian rouble to become the 13th most used currency, accounting for 0.63% of all global payments, a significant jump from January 2012 when it ranked 20th and accounted for 0.25%.
Of the 160 countries that exchanged payments with China and Hong Kong in April 2013, 47 of them had at least 10% of their payments valued in renminbi.
