Chinese news agency says UK sees RMB as potentially 'main reserve currency'

2:27p ET Monday, September 15, 2014

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

While it is not included in the mainstream financial news agency reports about the United Kingdom Treasury Department's plan to issue bonds denominated in Chinese currency --

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/12/britain-debt-renminbi-idUSL5N0...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-12/u-k-to-sell-first-yuan-denomina...

-- nor in the official U.K. Treasury statement --

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/great-bonds-with-china-uk-china-dialo...

-- the Chinese official news agency Xinhua quotes the British treasury secretary, George Osborne, as saying that the U.K. government has confidence in the Chinese yuan's "potential" to become "the main global reserves currency."

Did Osbourne really say it? Did he say it just for Chinese consumption and are the Western news organizations omitting it to oblige? It's a good bet that no one in those news organizations will be asking.

The Xinhua report is appended.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.

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Britain to Include China's RMB as Foreign Currency Reserve

From Xinhua News Agency, Beijing
Friday, September 12, 2014

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/business/2014-09/13/c_126981640.htm

LONDON -- British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced Friday that the British government intends to issue a Renminbi denominated bond and to use the proceeds to finance the government's reserves of foreign currency.

"I can now announce that the UK government intends to be the first national government outside of China to issue a bond in China's currency. We issued bonds in U.S. dollars before, now we will be issuing a bond in RMB," Osborne said in the press release of the Sixth China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue.

Chinese Vice Premier Ma Kai and Osborne concluded the meeting of the Sixth China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue in London.

Osborne described this dialogue outcome as "a historic moment" and a statement of British confidence in the potential of the RMB to become "the main global reserves currency."

"And let me be clear: As China becomes a bigger and bigger part of the world economy, their currency is going to be used around the world. We here in Britain understand that, and we want us to be the first country in the west to seize the opportunities that it will bring," Osborne declared.

Meanwhile, the issuance of Chinese currency bond means jobs and investment in Britain, which the government's long-term economic plan is all about, Osborne noted.