Russia is now the third-largest market for yuan transactions outside the Chinese mainland as Western sanctions block payments using the dollar and euro.
Companies and banks based in Russia accounted for nearly 4% of yuan transactions globally in July, according to SWIFT data compiled by Reuters. That’s up from 1.42% in June and zero in February, when Russia began its war on Ukraine.
Hong Kong was still holding the top spot as the largest user of the yuan outside the mainland, accounting for 73.8%. Britain is in second with 6.4%.
The yuan is the fifth most widely used currency in international payments markets, according to SWIFT data. The US dollar remains at the top, followed by the euro, British pound, and Japanese yen.
