Chinese yuan's new global challenge to the dollar
Chinese yuan, pegged to the dollar until not long ago, is turning into a global reserve currency.
A 100 Chinese yuan banknote is placed next to a US 100 dollar banknote in this photo illustration taken in Beijing on Sept. 24, 2010.
Petar Kujundzic/Reuters/File
Dakar, Senegal
Nigeria, West Africa's largest economy, is selling US dollars for Chinese yuan.
Nigerian Central Bank Governor Lamido Sanusi said in Beijing on Sept. 6 that Africa's top oil exporter will convert as much as 10 percent of its $33 billion in foreign reserves from US dollars into Chinese yuan. Central banks use foreign reserves to manage their own currency's value.
In Nigeria's case, the up to 10 percent ($3.3 billion) it may convert to yuan isn't an enormous sum – not, at least, for the oil-rich exporter. What is enormous, economists say, is what the bank's decision says: The yuan, pegged to the dollar until not long ago and managed more recently to keep Chinese exports cheap – is turning into a global reserve currency. Africa – particularly West Africa – may be China's earliest, easiest zone of success.
The rise of China's yuan as a global currency – trusted by central banks, accepted by finance ministries, routinely used to purchase raw goods – is "inevitable," Mr. Sanusi said, putting his mouth where his money is.
