BEIJING: China's central bank doubled the size of a currency swap with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to 400 billion yuan ($63 billion), which could boost flagging cross-border trade settlement.
China's attempts to promote the international use of its currency by using Hong Kong as a testing ground to boost trade invoicing in yuan over the last two years has flagged in recent weeks as yuan appreciation expectations have slowed and quotas have proved inadequate to handle rising trade volumes.
That has slowed the pace of growth of offshore yuan or "CNH" deposits in Hong Kong banks and have also contributed to the weakness of the Chinese currency in the former British colony.
But the new increased currency swap lines between Beijing and Hong Kong, market players expect it will deliver a shot in the arm to the spreading cross-border scheme and encourage more corporates to use the yuan as a trade-settlement currency.
"Both sides agree that the renewal of currency swap deal will help to maintain regional financial stability, to facilitate trade and investment of both sides, and to support the onshore yuan market development in Hong Kong," the People's Bank of China said in a short statement.
The new agreement takes over from a 200 billion yuan currency swap agreement signed in January 2009, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said in a statement.
The HKMA tapped the swap for the first time in October 2010, using 20 billion yuan to support trade settlement.
During the first three quarters of this year, renminbi deposits in Hong Kong nearly doubled to 622 billion yuan, while renminbi trade settlement conducted through banks in Hong Kong amounted to over 1,300 billion yuan.
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