The latest stop on the renminbi’s whistle-stop tour to international stardom is Taiwan. From now on, Taiwanese banks will be able to clear transactions in the “redback”, making Taipei another offshore renminbi centre alongside Hong Kong. With Singapore and London jostling to be next and China now firmly established as the world’s second-largest economy, surely it can only be a matter of time before much of the world’s trade is settled in renminbi and central banks are holding a substantial part of their reserves in the Chinese currency?
人民幣正在國際明星舞臺展開旋風般的「巡演」,最新一站是臺灣。從現在起,臺灣的銀行將能夠清算以「紅背票」(redback,此處代指人民幣)計價的交易,這讓臺北成爲又一個離岸人民幣中心,就像香港那樣。新加坡和倫敦正在爭相成爲下一個離岸人民幣中心,而中國已坐穩了全球第二大經濟體的位子;考慮到這兩點,是不是我們遲早會看到,全球很大一塊貿易將以人民幣結算,各國央行的外匯儲備將有相當大一部分爲人民幣資產?