Key facts
- Hong Kong officials discussed reducing reliance on the US dollar with Brunei and other economies at the Apec meeting.
- The discussions focused on expanding the use of local currencies and the yuan for bilateral trade settlement.
Hong Kong officials held discussions with finance ministers and representatives from economies such as Brunei during last week’s Apec meeting on reducing reliance on the US dollar and expanding the use of local currencies and the yuan for bilateral trade settlement, the city’s treasury chief has said. Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu shared anecdotes about the intangible gains made by the city from hosting the... China will introduce a series of measures to deepen the development of the offshore renminbi market by enhancing liquidity, expanding the supply of RMB-denominated assets and strengthening connectivity with onshore markets. The People's Bank of China will continue to optimize relevant institutional arrangements to provide stable and multitiered RMB liquidity support to the offshore market, said Xie Guangqi, director-general of the Monetary Policy Department of the PBOC. The PBOC will guide the China Foreign Exchange Trade System to collaborate with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission to build a comprehensive financial trading platform that provides infrastructure services for trading in financial markets, including bonds, currencies and foreign exchange. On July 7, the PBOC, the HKMA and the SFC jointly announced new measures to promote the offshore RMB (CNH) market's development in Hong Kong. Xiong Yi, chief economist for China at Deutsche Bank, said this coordinated effort represents the most significant policy push to date to reinforce Hong Kong's role as the preeminent offshore hub for renminbi. The new measures reaffirm that the offshore RMB market is a long-term pillar of the currency's internationalization rather than a stopgap solution, he said.