Analysts suggest that conventional metrics may understate the increasing role of China's yuan in global payments. A growing share of transactions is being routed through Beijing's cross-border system, leading to discrepancies in current global currency data.

Mainstream metrics may understate the role of China’s currency in global payments, as a growing share of transactions is now routed through Beijing’s own cross-border payment system and not fully reflected in conventional data sets, analysts say. This could help explain the gap between Beijing’s official narrative – which describes the yuan as the world’s third-largest payment currency – and readings from tracking systems such as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication...