In 2012 there was huge publicity at the launch of the RMB and high annual growth initially, but over the last couple of years there has been little growth, as SWIFT’s figures on FX transctions in RMB show:

Source & Copyright©2018 - SWIFT 

RMB global share

RMB’s rank as a domestic and international payments currency for customer initiated and institutional payments, based on value, for messages exchanged on SWIFT is stuck at 6th place globally:

And global rank drops to 8th if exclude payments within the Eurozone.

Offshore RMB economies with clearing centres

Looking at RMB economies with clearing centres by weight, the picture is unchanged since the RMB was launched. In 2018 Hong Kong is still the biggest by far with 75%, UK with 6%, Singapore with 4.8% and rest nowhere. There is no way it is ever going to challenge the USD.

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CTMfile take: The dynamics of global trade will need to change dramatically to significantly alter the role of the RMB. There is no way the RMB will ever challenge the dominace of the USD.