Russian exporters increased the volume of transactions in Chinese yuan from the equivalent of 0.5 billion dollars to 6.9 billion per month (13.8 times), and importers – from 1.4 billion to 7.7 billion (5.5 times) .
According to the Bank of Russia Report on Financial Market Risks, the share of the Chinese yuan in export-import operations has grown significantly against the backdrop of a decrease in the share of “toxic” currencies in trade settlements. yuan in the structure of exports amounted to 18%, and in the structure of imports – 27%.
The share of the yuan in the Russian stock and over-the-counter markets is also growing. In the spot exchange market, the share of the yuan in April 2023 increased to 36.1%, in the over-the-counter market to 22.3%, while at the end of 2022 it was 31.5% and 17.6%, respectively.
The structure of buyers and sellers on the yuan spot market has changed over the past six months. Until October 2022, the main group of domestic renminbi suppliers were other banks (including foreign subsidiaries) that bought yuan over the counter from non-residents. Other banks, in turn, sold the yuan purchased on the exchange market to systemically important Russian banks, thereby satisfying the demand of citizens and companies for yuan deposits. Thus, during this period, there was a net inflow of RMB liquidity to the domestic market.
Since October 2022, the influx of the yuan into the Russian market has accelerated at the expense of exporters, while the demand for this currency has remained on the part of companies to pay for imports. As a result, backbone banks working with exporters have become the main suppliers of the yuan on the exchange market. Until March 2023, non-residents were net buyers of the yuan; In April 2023, non-financial companies will become the main buyers. These purchases were mainly used to pay for imports.
Source: TASS