Australia increasingly transacting with China


Australian companies are increasingly realising the importance of China, with Australia the only country where Renminbi use rose since 2014, a study found.
The 2015 HSBC RMB Internationalisation Study of 1600 international companies currently transacting with China found 13 per cent of Australian companies are using RMB for cross-border business, compared to only nine per cent in 2014.
Australia is close at the heels of Singapore (15 per cent) and Korea (15 per cent), which heavily lean towards the RMB, but is behind Mainland China and Hong Kong as expected.
"After announcing a milestone Free Trade Agreement with China and being appointed an offshore RMB clearing centre in November 2014, it's no surprise that Australian companies are waking-up to the importance of incorporating RMB within their broader China strategy," head of commercial banking for HSBC in Australia James Hogan said.
Looking ahead, 20 per cent of current non-users are planning to settle cross-border business in RMB in the next three years.
The attraction lies in lowering FX risks or costs, requests from trading counterparts, and cheaper and more competitive pricing, the non-users said.
But 40 per cent of non-users have not yet thought about using RMB, the study found.
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