Headline via Reuters, citing the China Securities Regulatory Commission
It's been a long time coming, but it's finally here. We'll start seeing yuan-denominated futures contracts for oil.
Currently, oil is traded off two forms (WTI and Brent) and they are mostly traded off the NYMEX and ICE exchanges, in dollar terms.
So, this will help wrestle some control over pricing but then again it's still not clear whether or not we will see oil producers and traders take kindly to these contracts - given that Chinese authorities are prone to intervene in the yuan market and the occasional risk of capital controls.
But it is a step closer to the country's bigger objective I guess, which is to promote global usage of the Chinese yuan in trade - and also to eat into the US dollar's share of the pie.
