Renminbi

The renminbi (Chinese: 人民币; pinyin: Rénmínbì; lit. 'People's Currency' Chinese pronunciation: [ʐən˧˥min˧˥pi˥˩]; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of China. The renminbi is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of China. It is the world's fifth-most-traded currency as of April 2022.^{[needs update]} The Chinese yuan (元) is the basic unit of the renminbi.

One yuan is divided into 10 jiao (角), and the jiao is further subdivided into 10 fen (分). The word yuan is widely used to refer to the Chinese currency generally, especially in international contexts.

Until 2005, the value of the renminbi was pegged to the US dollar. As China pursued its transition from central planning to a market economy and increased its participation in foreign trade, the renminbi was devalued to increase the competitiveness of Chinese industry. It has previously been claimed that the renminbi's official exchange rate was undervalued by as much as 37.5% against its purchasing power parity. However, more recently, appreciation actions by the Chinese government, as well as quantitative easing measures taken by the American Federal Reserve and other major central banks, have caused the renminbi to be within as little as 8% of its equilibrium value by the second half of 2012. Since 2006, the renminbi exchange rate has been allowed to float in a narrow margin around a fixed base rate determined with reference to a basket of world currencies. By 2015, the IMF assessed it as suggested to be no longer undervalued. The Chinese government has announced that it will gradually increase the flexibility of the exchange rate. As a result of the rapid internationalization of the renminbi, it became the world's 8th most traded currency in 2013, 5th by 2015, but 6th in 2019.

On 1 October 2016, the renminbi became the first emerging market currency to be included in the IMF's special drawing rights basket, the basket of currencies used by the IMF as a reserve currency. Its initial weighting in the basket was 10.9%.

The ISO code for the renminbi is CNY, the PRC's country code (CN) plus "Y" from "yuan". Hong Kong markets that trade renminbi at free-floating rates use the unofficial code CNH. This is to distinguish the rates from those fixed by Chinese central banks on the mainland. The abbreviation RMB is not an ISO code but is sometimes used like one by banks and financial institutions.

The currency symbol for the yuan unit is ¥, but when distinction from the Japanese yen is required RMB (e.g. RMB 10,000) or ¥ RMB (e.g. ¥10,000 RMB) is used. However, in written Chinese contexts, the Chinese character for yuan (Chinese: 元; lit. 'constituent', 'part') or, in formal contexts Chinese: 圆; lit. 'round', usually follows the number in lieu of a currency symbol.

Renminbi is the name of the currency while yuan is the name of the primary unit of the renminbi. This is analogous to the distinction between "sterling" and "pound" when discussing the official currency of the United Kingdom. Jiao and fen are also units of renminbi.

In everyday Mandarin, kuai (Chinese: 块; pinyin: kuài; lit. 'piece') is usually used when discussing money and "renminbi" or "yuan" are rarely heard. Similarly, Mandarin speakers typically use mao (Chinese: 毛; pinyin: máo) instead of jiao. For example, ¥8.74 might be read as 八块七毛四 (pinyin: bā kuài qī máo sì) in everyday conversation, but read 八元七角四分 (pinyin: bā yuán qī jiǎo sì fēn) formally.