China Daily reported today in a round-up article ("Yuan’s Global March Gathers Momentum,” that in mid-March the Export-Import Bank of China and the Saudi National Bank (a commercial bank) made a joint loan in China’s renminbi (RMB) and established an agreement for further joint lending in RMB. This would be a first in creating a multi-nation credit channel in RMB, although informally such channels have sprung up in Russia. It also reported that Iraq has announced its central bank is increasing the RMB balances of Iraqi banks that have RMB accounts with Chinese banks, which can facilitate similar RMB lending. This “may prompt other OPEC members to follow suit and increase RMB usage,” the paper quotes Lin Boqiang of Xiamen University.
The article summarizes numerous other yuan-national currency trade agreements which we have been covering; notably, it reports that China has established the benchmarks for yuan-denominated futures contracts for seven major commodities since 2018. Russia has also established benchmarks for two—coal and wheat. (https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202305/08/WS64584cc7a310b6054fad190c.html )
