The yuan-denominated overseas funds business has helped push the Chinese currency's internationalization drive and the development of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said on Wednesday.
The scale of this business exceeded 300 billion yuan ($44.6 billion) as of the end of the first quarter of 2019, said the PBOC, China's central bank, in a statement posted on its website.
The existence of yuan-denominated overseas funds, carried out by Chinese commercial banks, has filled a gap in the investment universe of Chinese policy banks and diversified financing models in Chinese overseas investment, the statement said.
Such funds covered investment in key industries such as transportation, power and energy, finance and manufacturing, and they have boosted the use of the yuan in overseas markets.
The yuan-denominated overseas funds business has been gradually recognized by the market under the active promotion of various commercial organizations since 2017, according to the PBOC statement.
Such overseas funds have played an important role in promoting the internationalization of the yuan and the "going abroad" of Chinese enterprises, products and services, the PBOC said.
The Silk Road Fund, for instance, had extended yuan-denominated loans of 18 billion yuan as of the end of March 2019.
