France’s central bank and the German Bundesbank recently included the yuan in their foreign exchange reserves. The central banks of Belgium and Slovakia already possess yuan assets, while those of Spain and Switzerland have also expressed their interest in the currency. Central banks in Africa, Central and Southeast Asia have even bigger shares of their foreign exchange reserves in yuan.
It was reported in January that during the second quarter of 2018, joining the trend, the Bank of Russia twice reduced the amount of its foreign exchange held in US dollars and moved the equivalent of US$44 billion each into euros and yuan, with another US$21 billion invested in the Japanese yen. The share of Russian foreign exchange reserves held in yuan has increased from five to 15 per cent. That means that Russia’s yuan share is about 10 times the average for global central banks, with its total holdings of the currency constituting about a quarter of world yuan reserves.