© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang speaks to the media at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), in Washington, DC, US April 15, 2023. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
Written by Ray Wei
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – China’s central bank governor Yi Gang said on Wednesday that transactions using China’s digital yuan reached 1.8 trillion yuan ($249.33 billion) at the end of June, a jump from more than 100 billion yuan in August last year.
The numbers cement China’s role as a leader among countries developing their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) – digital tokens issued by central banks – although adoption is still in the early stages. e-CNY, as the digital yuan is called, was mainly used for domestic retail payments.
Speaking at a lecture organized by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in the Southeast Asian city-state, Yi said the Chinese digital currency in circulation had reached 16.5 billion yuan as of the end of June.
Yi said the total CNY electronic transactions amounted to 950 million, with 120 million wallets opened.
However, Yi said e-CNY in circulation represents only 0.16% of China’s M0 money supply, or money in circulation.
“And you can see that at the moment the e-CNY balance is only one-tenth of 1% of M0, so the balance is very small, but with this kind of balance (we) support a large number of transactions, which means the speed is high and more efficient,” Ye said.
Last year, Chinese state-owned banks took part in an experiment focused on cross-border transactions developed by the Bank for International Settlements.
Yi, who was introduced in a slideshow at the Singapore event as chairman of the China Association of Banking and Finance — an organization affiliated with the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) — is widely expected to step down since he was booted from the ruling Communist Party’s Central Committee during the once-in-five-year party congress in October.
The Communist Party appointed Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Pan Gongsheng as chairman of the People’s Party of China (PBOC) on July 1, a move sources said put him in position to succeed the 65-year-old Yi as central bank governor of the world’s second-largest economy, a position nominated by the government.
When asked about the PBOC’s succession, Ye refused to comment directly and said, “I am Yi Gang, and also, my title is here on display, and I will take care of my duty at any time in my full capacity.”
($1 = 7.2193 renminbi)