China, Belarus agree to begin yuan or ruble settlement  

    BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) -- The People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, announced Thursday it has signed an agreement with the central bank of Belarus, under which bilateral trade can be settled with the Chinese yuan or Belarussian ruble.

    The move would help deepen economic cooperation, and facilitate trade and investment between the two nations, said the PBOC in a statement on its website.

    The PBOC said it was a major step in promoting the yuan in international trade settlement after it launched in July 2009 a pilot program of cross-border settlement in yuan in the cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Dongguan.

    The PBOC signed a currency swap agreement in March 2009 with the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus, allowing the two banks to swap 20 billion yuan (2.9 billion U.S. dollars) or 8 trillion Belarus rubles over three years.

    Since the end of 2008, China has also sealed currency swap agreements with the Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia.

    According to Chinese government statistics, the volume of yuan-denominated cross-border trade settlement totaled 5.6 billion yuan at the end of February.