Goldman Sachs has found that trade settlement in the Chinese yuan has nearly tripled since 2019, at a time when Beijing is accelerating efforts to internationalise its currency through trade, cross-border payments and financial flows.

China-linked trade settlements in yuan grew from 13 per cent in 2019 to 30 per cent last year, although they still lagged the country’s relative weight in the global economy, the New York-based investment bank said in a research note.

Total cross-border yuan transactions also rose “sharply” from 9 trillion yuan (US$1.32 trillion) in 2017 to 64 trillion yuan in 2024, according to the note by the bank’s China economist Chen Xinquan.

Beijing’s push for yuan internationalisation is seen as crucial to reducing dependence on US dollar-denominated channels amid strained bilateral ties with Washington and concerns over the weaponisation of the American currency. Top officials have adopted a more proactive tone in recent months, signalling increased efforts to promote the currency’s global use, even as adoption remains relatively modest.

Yuan invoicing for goods imports had roughly doubled since 2020 across sample countries, but still accounted for only 1.5 per cent of the total in 2023, according to Goldman Sachs. The currency’s share of global payments reached about 3 to 4 per cent over the past two years, Chen wrote, noting that it also made up about 2 per cent of official global reserves in 2025.

“RMB international use has improved but still trails China’s global footprint, implying solid potential to grow in the future,” Chen said.

Separately, Zhu Min, former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was quoted earlier this month as saying that Beijing could further internationalise the yuan by expanding its use in industrial supply chains, trade and commodity settlements, as well as through a swap mechanism functioning as a “quasi-lender of last resort”.