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The Chinese government will push for the yuan to become one of the denominations and settlement currencies for the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), reports Hong Kong's South China Morning Post.
Beijing will also call for the AIIB and the Silk Road Fund to establish special currency funds and issue yuan-denominated loans, said the sources.
If the AIIB founding members cannot agree on a basket of currencies, China will allow the AIIB and Silk Road Fund to use the US dollar as a currency of settlement. It will, however, encourage the use of the renminbi as the organizations mature, said sources.
The US$40 billion Silk Road Fund aims to provide investment in infrastructure projects and businesses from Asian to European countries.
China's state-owned Outlook magazine recently said in an article titled The Five Key Questions Facing the AIIB that the organization has three options for its currency of settlement — the US dollar, the renminbi or an AIIB currency basket.
Of the three options, the US dollar would be the most cost-efficient and convenient while the yuan the most expensive and least convenient, the article said, adding that a currency basket would be the most attractive option given that it is more resilient to market changes.
China should strive to establish the yuan as the currency for denomination and settlement, said Hong Hao, the chief economist and managing director or research at Bocom International. If the US dollar is used, China's bid for the yuan to become a global currency and its challenge to the hegemony of the US dollar would be weakened, said Hong.
Hu Yifan, the chief economist with Haitong Securities International, said a consensus on the currency basket would be hard to reach. Despite long-term negotiations, the Asian Development Bank has not come to an agreement on its own currency basket.
Hu believes that the AIIB could use the US dollar as a currency of settlement in the beginning but should gradually turn to a mix of the renminbi and the US dollar.