"The EIU [Economist Intelligence Unit] believes that the yuan is unlikely to seriously challenge the US dollar for primacy on the global currency markets within the next decade," Victoria Lai, an analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit research and analysis company, said in a Wednesday interview with Sputnik.
According to Lai, significant reforms on regulatory standards in the financial market, a broader range of quality assets and committing to opening up the country's capital accounts will be necessary to boost the yuan's positions against the dollar.
The analyst added, however, that the yuan is being more widely used in settling trade and deals, especially regionally.
According to Andrei Akopian, managing partner at Caderus Capital, the yuan has a chance of becoming the second currency worldwide in terms of international payment volume in the near future.
"In September 2011, China announced its plans to make the yuan fully convertible by 2015. I do not doubt the success of this plan. I have no doubts that the yuan can become second in terms of the volume of international payments in the next two or three years," Akopian told Sputnik Wednesday.
"It's a rapid growth," Akopian stressed.
In recent years the role of the yuan in international financial transactions has increased dramatically. It is now commonly used in both global payments and mutual settlements.
According to the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the yuan was used in 2.17 percent of world transactions in December. Since November, the Chinese currency has been outrunning both the Canadian and Australian dollars.
