Economic malaise or not, one thing Chinese administrators seem to have their minds made is to make Yuan internationally acceptable as a reserve currency. Last Year, International Monetary Fund (IMF) included Yuan as a fifth currency in its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket, giving it a weightage more than Yen and Pound. Still lots of reforms are required to be pursued to make Yuan globally acceptable as alternate reserve currency and China seems determined to make that happen. It has taken several steps in that direction yesterday.

• Shanghai Gold Exchange, first launched its Yuan denominated Gold benchmark yesterday for which rate will be set twice daily. This is an attempt to make the Yuan denominated Gold market international.

• Second one is even more crucial. Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) has announced that it will launch four Yuan based exchange rate futures from second quarter this year, which will make the Yuan market more liquid. These instruments are, EUR/CNH, JPY/CNH, AUD/CNH and CNH/USD.  HKSE already provides, USD/CNH future, which is world’s most traded Yuan future and growing. Average daily open interest has increased 300% from a year back.

• In Addition to the above, China and Russia are negotiating to set up an offshore Yuan center and issue Yuan denominated bonds.