Xinhua News Agency’s affiliate newspaper, Economic Information Daily, Thursday published an op ed suggesting measures for the further adoption of the digital yuan.
See related article: The digital yuan’s de-dollarization
Fast facts
- Local governments should raise their budgets to promote the pilot, the editorial said.
- State-owned entities should take the lead in adopting e-CNY, it added.
- The op ed also suggests expanding the digital yuan to more merchants, especially e-commerce platforms, and launch more campaigns to promote the CBDC to the public.
- The central bank should work on the rights and responsibilities of the digital yuan while legislation on the project is underway, the op-ed added.
- China’s CBDC — the digital yuan, or e-CNY — started trials in Shenzhen in October 2020 and topped 87.565 billion yuan (US$11.238 billion) transaction volume by the end of 2021; it just expanded the piloting in 23 Chinese cities.
- Yet in April, the central bank admitted that the project is facing problems in terms of convenience, inclusiveness, innovation, security, compliance and sustainability, which need to be further studied and addressed.
- According to the data released at the end of last year, the average transfer amount of each personal digital yuan wallet is 335.5 yuan (US$52.66), which is 1.4% of the average annual expenditure of Chinese residents in 2021.
- The actual average transfer volume could be even lower if the transaction volumes made by institutional/business wallets are taken out.
See related article:Hong Kong makes apt testbed for e-CNY cross-border use