The National Bank of Serbia confirmed this evening that it had considered keeping part of the state’s foreign exchange reserves in yuan, the Chinese currency, which was previously announced as a possibility by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
“Given the high level of foreign exchange reserves, the fact that the yuan is included in the currency structure of Serbia’s external debt, as well as the internationalization of the yuan and its growing importance in global payments and on the international financial market, the National Bank of Serbia is one of the options for expanding the investment universe considered investing part of the foreign exchange reserves in assets denominated in yuan”, the NBS told the N1 portal.
They added that a concrete decision has not yet been made, that is, that the NBS is in the process of securing the necessary preconditions (infrastructure) for inclusion in the Chinese bond market.
“Specific decisions on investing a certain part of foreign exchange reserves in financial instruments denominated in yuan will, as in all other cases, be made with careful consideration and analysis of all necessary factors, bearing in mind that the Chinese yuan is the fifth most traded international currency on the global financial market, also the fifth most frequently used currency in global payments, as well as the sixth currency in terms of participation in global foreign exchange reserves”, the NBS stated.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Wednesday in Beijing, where Serbia signed the Free Trade Agreement and numerous others with China, that since January 2015 the Chinese yuan has been on the list of Serbian currencies for the international market and that the NBS is considering including that Chinese currency into its foreign exchange reserves.
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