China's yuan falls to 6th place among most-used world payment currencies

Overall, yuan payments value in April decreased by 7.73 per cent from a month earlier

China's yuan fell to the sixth place in April among most-used currencies for global payments by value with a market share of 1.82 per cent, global transaction services organisation SWIFT said on Thursday.

The yuan jumped to the fourth place last August, but gradually lost growth momentum as the volatile foreign exchange rate and China's sluggish economy dampened foreign investors' appetite to use or hold the currency.

The 'redback' is now after the US dollar, the euro, the sterling, the Japanese yen and the Canadian dollar.

Overall, yuan payments value in April decreased by 7.73 per cent from a month earlier, while in general all payment currencies decreased by 4.6 per cent, SWIFT said.

SWIFT data also showed that India's use of yuan for payments with China/Hong Kong was on the rise, but the country still had one of the lowest yuan adoption rates among Asian countries, ranked 38th worldwide.

In April, 3.8 per cent of all payments made between India and China/Hong Kong were exchanged in the yuan, compared with 0.2 per cent two years earlier. The yuan was the fourth most-active currency for payments between India and China/Hong Kong.

Photograph: Reuters