Beijing, July 20 (IANS): China's renminbi(RMB) may become the world's fourth most-used international currency, replacing the Japanese yen, a media report said here on Monday.

The People's Daily quoted Chen Yulu, president of Renmin University of China, as saying that the International Monetary Forum had raised the RMB Internationalization Index from 0.02 in 2009 to 2.47 in 2014. The top three currencies are the dollar, the euro and the British pound, although the listing varies, depending on which criteria is being used.

The daily said that the level of acceptance of RMB worldwide had gone up significantly. Cross-border RMB flow reached 6.55 trillion in 2014, seeing a rise of 41.6 percent. RMB constitutes 2.96 percent of worldwide trades, seeing a direct investment amount of 1.05 trillion. RMB, also known as the yuan, had now become the world’s second trade-finance currency, fifth payment currency, and sixth foreign-exchange currency, Chen said.

RMB will see a greater surge in market share, the report added.

In January 2014, RMB had surpassed the Swiss franc to become the seventh most-used currency in the world, according to SWIFT, the global transaction services organisation.