The Chinese yuan just had a rough month on the global payments stage. According to SWIFT’s RMB Tracker, the renminbi’s share of international payments (excluding intra-Eurozone transactions) dropped from 3.10% in March to 2.38% in April 2025, knocking it from fourth to sixth place among global currencies.
For all payments including Eurozone flows, RMB held a 3.50% share, good enough for fifth place.
The numbers behind the slide
The actual value of RMB-denominated payments fell 14.14% month-on-month in April. That’s a steep drop by any measure, made even more conspicuous by the fact that overall global payments in all currencies actually rose by 1.35% during the same period.
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