People’s Bank of China to include CBDC in ‘official statistics’ for first time

Including the digital yuan in official statistics

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has announced plans to include China’s own central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan (e-CNY), in its official statistics on currency circulation. According to the 2022 Financial Statistics Report, the amount of e-CNY in circulation was included in the amount of money in circulation (M0) for the first time since December of the same year.

“M0” is the cash and reserves held by the central bank and is one of the indicators of the money supply. As of the end of December, the circulation of e-CNY was 13.61 billion yuan (about 264.6 billion yen), accounting for 0.13% of the total M0 (10.47 trillion yuan/about 204 trillion yen).

In addition, M2 (total of cash, deposit currency, and quasi-currency), which is being watched as a broad indicator of the money supply, was 266.43 trillion yuan (about 5,187 trillion yen) as of the end of December, and e-CNY accounted for it. is only 0.005%. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) concluded that including e-CNY in the statistics would not have a noticeable impact on growth rates of M1 and M2.

Promoting the spread of CBDC

In China, the introduction of e-CNY is progressing in various places.

In 2021, e-CNY will officially become available as a payment method for the subway in the capital Beijing, including purchasing tickets and topping up transportation cards. The Beijing subway is said to have about 10 million passengers a day.

Also, in January last year, WeChat Pay, the mobile payment app with the highest usage rate in China, announced a policy to support e-CNY.

Relation:Digital yuan to support WeChat Pay

According to the South China Morning Post, an English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, e-CNY is currently being piloted in 26 cities and 5.6 million merchants, with a cumulative transaction value of 100 billion yuan (approximately 1 trillion yuan) as of the end of August last year. 948.5 billion yen).

Chinese local governments also offer e-CNY vouchers. The city of Wenzhou in Zhejiang province plans to offer vouchers worth 30 million yuan ($5 million) next month, he said.

Also, on the 8th of this month, China announced the end of its zero-corona policy by abolishing mandatory isolation measures for patients, but consumption is considered to be the key to post-corona economic recovery, and it has been affected. It has been pointed out that the possibility of distributing e-CNY to households with

Yao Yang, president of the National Development Institute of Peking University, believes that the use of the digital renminbi for government subsidies is “a great opportunity for the spread of CBDC and an excellent tool to kill two birds with one stone.” Indicated.