Previously, the volume hadn’t topped $117 billion monthly, but analysts say the Iran war has stoked the use of China’s currency by oil exporters like Russia and Iran, who are seeking to avoid US sanctions. While the trend does reflect a slight erosion of the dollar’s international dominance, something we’ve been keeping our eye on, it’s worth keeping things in perspective: the greenback is…

For 80 years, the US dollar has been the world's reserve currency. Its dominance was built on US economic strength, institutional trust, and the post-World War Two Bretton Woods system, which pegged global currencies to the dollar rather than gold. But today, the greenback is under pressure. The dollar shed about a tenth of its value in the first year of Trump 's second term. Tariffs,…

On Saturday, Chinese President Xi Jinping made it public: he wants the renminbi, China’s currency, to become a “powerful currency” that ultimately replaces the dollar as the global reserve currency – that is, the one most held by central banks worldwide.

The remarks, shared in the Communist Party’s flagship journal, were originally part of a speech Xi delivered privately to regional…