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Jumpstarting an international currency

Author

Listed:
  • Saleem Bahaj

    (Bank of England)

  • Ricardo Reis

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

Monetary and financial policies that lower the cost of credit for working capital in a currency outside of its country can provide the impetus for that currency to be used in international trade. This paper shows this in theory, by exploring the complementarity in the currency used for financing working capital and the currency used for invoicing sales. Financial policies by a central bank can jump-start the use of its currency outside a country’s borders. In the data, the creation of 38 swap lines by the People’s Bank of China between 2009 and 2018 provides a test of the theory. Signing a swap line with a country is significantly associated with increases in the use of the RMB in payments to and from that country in the following months.

Suggested Citation

  • Saleem Bahaj & Ricardo Reis, 2020. "Jumpstarting an international currency," Bank of England working papers 874, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0874
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Boz, Emine & Casas, Camila & Georgiadis, Georgios & Gopinath, Gita & Le Mezo, Helena & Mehl, Arnaud & Nguyen, Tra, 2020. "Patterns in invoicing currency in global trade," Working Paper Series 2456, European Central Bank.
    2. Christopher Clayton & Matteo Maggiori & Jesse Schreger, 2025. "Putting Economics Back into Geoeconomics," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2025, volume 40, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Georgios Georgiadis & Helena Le Mezo & Arnaud Mehl & Cedric Tille, 2021. "Fundamentals vs. policies: can the US dollar's dominance in global trade be dented?," IHEID Working Papers 12-2021, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    4. Horn, Sebastian & Reinhart, Carmen M. & Trebesch, Christoph, 2021. "China's overseas lending," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Antoine Berthou, 2023. "International sanctions and the dollar: Evidence from trade invoicing," Working papers 924, Banque de France.
    6. He, Qing & Liu, Junyi & Yu, Jishuang, 2023. "Dancing with dragon: The RMB and developing economies’ currencies," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Daisuke Ikeda, 2020. "Digital Money as a Unit of Account and Monetary Policy in Open Economies," IMES Discussion Paper Series 20-E-15, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
    8. Christopher Clayton & Amanda Dos Santos & Matteo Maggiori & Jesse Schreger, 2025. "Internationalizing Like China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(3), pages 864-902, March.
    9. Zucker Marques, Marina, 2021. "Financial statecraft and transaction costs: The case of renminbi internationalization," Discussion Papers 2021/9, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    10. Lodge, David & Pérez, Javier J. & Albrizio, Silvia & Everett, Mary & De Bandt, Olivier & Georgiadis, Georgios & Ca' Zorzi, Michele & Lastauskas, Povilas & Carluccio, Juan & Parraga Rodriguez, Susana &, 2021. "The implications of globalisation for the ECB monetary policy strategy," Occasional Paper Series 263, European Central Bank.
    11. Mukhin, Dmitry, 2022. "An equilibrium model of the international price system," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 112500, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Sergio Florez-Orrego & Matteo Maggiori & Jesse Schreger & Ziwen Sun & Serdil Tinda, 2024. "Global Capital Allocation," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 623-653, August.
    13. Eren, Egemen & Malamud, Semyon, 2022. "Dominant currency debt," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 571-589.
    14. Corsetti, Giancarlo & Crowley, Meredith & Han, Lu, 2022. "Invoicing and the dynamics of pricing-to-market: Evidence from UK export prices around the Brexit referendum," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    15. Alina Iancu & Gareth Anderson & Sakai Ando & Ethan Boswell & Andrea Gamba & Shushanik Hakobyan & Lusine Lusinyan & Neil Meads & Yiqun Wu, 2022. "Reserve Currencies in an Evolving International Monetary System," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 33(5), pages 879-915, November.
    16. Boz, Emine & Casas, Camila & Georgiadis, Georgios & Gopinath, Gita & Le Mezo, Helena & Mehl, Arnaud & Nguyen, Tra, 2022. "Patterns of invoicing currency in global trade: New evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    17. Zucker-Marques, Marina, 2025. "Currency Internationalization, payment infrastructures and central banks: An institutional analysis of renminbi internationalization," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(PA).
    18. Benigno, Pierpaolo & Schilling, Linda M. & Uhlig, Harald, 2022. "Cryptocurrencies, currency competition, and the impossible trinity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    19. Liu, Tao & Wang, Xiaosong & Woo, Wing Thye, 2022. "The rise of Renminbi in Asia: Evidence from Network Analysis and SWIFT dataset," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    20. Marina Zucker‐Marques & Pedro Perfeito da Silva, 2022. "The Role of Institutions: A Cross‐country Analysis of Renminbi Trading in Foreign Exchange Markets," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 30(3), pages 42-74, May.
    21. Leander Bindewald, 2021. "Inconsistent Definitions of Money and Currency in Financial Legislation as a Threat to Innovation and Sustainability," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-17, January.
    22. Mitchener, Kris & Trebesch, Christoph, 2021. "Sovereign Debt in the 21st Century: Looking Backward, Looking Forward," CEPR Discussion Papers 15935, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    23. repec:osf:socarx:5s6n3_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Hao, Kaixuan & Han, Liyan & Li, (Tony) Wei, 2022. "The impact of China's currency swap lines on bilateral trade," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 173-183.
    25. repec:osf:socarx:r2msa_v1 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade credit; RMB internationalisation; swap lines;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F33 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Monetary Arrangements and Institutions

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