OREANDA-NEWS. March 27, 2014. Bank of China issued worldwide the initial “Off-shore RMB Index” (BOC ORI). It is another index launched by Bank of China to comprehensively represent the international level of RMB by giving play to its study capacity and professional advantage, after launching the “Cross-border RMB Index”(CRI) last year.

President of Bank of China Chen Siqing and Vice Executive President Yue Yi attended the press conference.

BOC ORI mainly tracks the development level of RMB in the off-shore financial market, including capital stock scale, capital operation status and application of financial instruments. It sets five categories of indexes, corresponding respectively to the five international monetary functions exercised by RMB: value-stored currency, financing currency, investment currency, reserve currency and transaction currency, which represent the comprehensive development level of RMB after weighted calculation.

BOC ORI was 0.91% by the end of 2013 and 0.32% only by the end of 2011, with a growth of 1.84 times in two years. As the index shows, RMB capital stock already has a certain scale on the off-shore market, as is an important factor promoting the development of off-shore RMB market. Hong Kong is the most important off-shore RMB center. In such regions as Southeast Asia and Europe, off-shore RMB market becomes increasingly active, while the stock and application of RMB is by now relatively limited in the markets of Africa, Middle East and America, but with a great potential. As the index indicates, as compared to USD and other international currencies, the total share of RMB in the off-shore financial market is not yet so high, but its promotion is at a relatively high rate, primarily showing a positive trend for internationalization of RMB to spread from the surrounding regions such as Southeast Asia to other regions all over the world.

President of Bank of China Chen Siqing indicated that RMB ORI and RMB CRI launched by Bank of China in 2013 acted in proper coordination with each other. The two indexes represent different indicators such as content, nature and emphasis, but they are mutually associated, supplemented and confirmed, forming, together, an integral system for tracking and studying the internationalization level of RMB. As the main channel bank for cross-border circulation and application of RMB, Bank of China will continue to thoroughly and extensively participate in off-shore and on-shore RMB financial market activities, actively advance the infrastructure construction for off-shore RMB market, energetically consolidate off-shore RMB products and strive to build up the professional influence and support and serve the all-around development of RMB internationalization.