China now pays the world mostly in yuan
Currency shares of China's non-bank outbound cross-border payments, %, SAFE data, 2010–2025.
The yuan's share of China's outbound payments: one month (Jan 2010) vs all of 2025.
The dollar's share of the same payments halved. The yuan has led since 2023.
Yuan share of China's inbound receipts in 2025, vs 46.7% for the dollar: the lead now holds both ways.
the numbers
| Year | Chinese yuan (RMB) (%) | US dollar (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 0.5 | 80.7 |
| 2015 | 22.0 | 66.0 |
| 2023 | 48.5 | 45.2 |
| 2024 | 52.2 | 41.7 |
| 2025 | 53.9 | 40.5 |
source notes & method
Secondary sourcing quoting SAFE monthly data. Full annual series could not be verified, so points are the clearest published snapshots of outbound (payment) shares: 2010 = January 2010, 2015 = January 2015 (FXC Intelligence, Jun 2023 and Jan 2025), 2023 = April 2023 (FXC), 2024 = March 2024 (FXC), 2025 = full year (FXC, Jan 2026). Inbound 2025: yuan 49.5%, dollar 46.7%. H1 2026 combined share 52.9% from SAFE press release (17 Jul 2026). Bloomberg (Apr 2023) reports the combined yuan share at nearly zero and dollar 83% in 2010.
Published 30 Sep 2026
what connects to this
one plate, every morning
The new world, explained in one chart, in your inbox at 7:00, your time. Free.
or follow via rss, the "rss" in progrss