OREANDA-NEWS. August 18, 2014. BOC released the Cross-border RMB Index (CRI) for May 2014. The May reading of CRI was 246 points, up 4 points over last month, and up 18 points as compared with December 2013.

The index rose slightly this month and continued the rising trend as a whole. RMB has maintained a net outflow in the cross-border circulation process, with overseas flows staying steady and the regional distribution of cross-border RMB settlement more in balance.

CRI in May increased moderately, with cross-border RMB circulation and use levels under capital account enhanced. Nationwide cross-border RMB settlement volume under current account decreased somewhat as compared with April, but RMB settlement volume under direct investment rose by 3.9% month on month, which contributed to the small ascent of the index.

RMB maintained the momentum of net outflows, with the outflow size declining to some extent. In May, such net outflows under current account continued, but the scale shrank as compared with the previous month. The overall cross-border RMB outflows/inflows have gradually tended to be in equilibrium.

Overseas circulation and use of RMB remained steady in general. In May, payments and settlements completed in RMB accounted for 1.47% of the world's total, up 0.04 percentage points as compared with 1.43% in April, and still ranked 7th among the major payment currencies worldwide.

Asia held the largest share of cross-border RMB settlements, and the share of Europe rose rapidly. Of the countries and regions with actual yuan-denominated receipts and payments with China’s mainland, Asia accounts for the largest share. Cross-border RMB settlements in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan region, Singapore, Japan and South Korea combined represented more than 75% of the total RMB receipts and payments with China’s mainland. Europe and the mainland of China posted rapid increases in the actual receipt and payment volume, whereas that of Germany, Britain, Luxembourg and France has doubled year on year, and when combined, accounts for 8% of the total volume with the mainland of China. Among them, the cross-border RMB settlements between Germany/Britain and the mainland of China have both exceeded 100 billion yuan.