China Currency: 2025 Guide to Use & Exchange Chinese RMB

Wise gives you the real, mid-market, exchange rate, so you can make huge savings on your international money transfers. It is even possible to spend an entire day paying for everything with a smartphone instead of cash. Even the owners of small vegetable stalls in traditional wet markets accept mobile payments.

Along with printing the currency, the bank is responsible for monetary and fiscal policy as well as financial regulation in China. The Forex technical analysis PBOC management team consists of a governor, six deputy governors, and a chief inspector. The term “Chinese yuan renminbi (CNY)” refers to the currency used in the People’s Republic of China. Although it may seem a little confusing because the names are often depicted together, they’re actually two separate terms.

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Today, renminbi is the general name for the Chinese currency, while yuan is the name of a unit of that currency. One way to understand this is to imagine a country that uses gold as its currency. Technically, though, RMB is the name of the Chinese currency (like US Dollar), while CNY is a unit of that currency (like “bucks” or “dollars”). There is, in fact, very little practical difference between the terms RMB (renminbi) and CNY (Chinese yuan), and you will often hear these two words used interchangeably. In every day vernacular, RMB and CNY are the exact same thing.

Can international cards be used easily in China?

You use pounds to purchase goods and services, not pounds sterling or sterling. Following this example, it’s important to remember that you can refer to the currency in general as the renminbi. Due to inflation, banknotes or coins with a value of less than one yuan, including one jiao and five jiao, are rarely used in China. Many places just round up or essentials of health care finance down to the nearest whole number. If someone insists on you paying the small change, you can just give them one yuan and tell them to keep the change instead. Learn more about managing payments while traveling in China here.

Chinese yuan rmb to US dollars today

A variety of currencies circulated in China during the Republic of China era, most of which were denominated in the unit ‘yuan’. In 1948 the People’s Bank of China issued a unified currency known as the Renminbi or ‘people’s currency’. Yuan in Chinese literally means a ‘round object’ or ‘round coin’. By following these simple steps, you can be safe and save money when you change your currency.

China Currency: 2025 Guide to Use & Exchange Chinese RMB

If you ask an economist, however, they will tell you that these terms are actually somewhat different. It comes down to the difference between currency and units of currency. Read on to discover the different between Chinese renminbi (RMB) and yuan (CNY) and learn to talk about China’s currency in both English and Chinese. Officially, China’s currency is the renminbi, which literally means “the people’s currency” in Mandarin. Hong Kong’s currency is the Hong Kong Dollar and Macau’s currency is called the Pataca.

After the revolution, a great many local, national and foreign banks issued currency. Although the provincial coinages mostly ended in the 1920s, the provincial banks continued issuing notes until 1949, including Communist issues from 1930. Most of the banknotes issued for use throughout the country bore the words “National Currency”, as did some of the provincial banks.

• You’ll now see the value of the converted currency according to the most recent exchange rate.
• The growth of GDP and inflation affect the market rate of the Chinese yuan.
• Chinese paper money comes in denominations of one, five, ten, twenty, fifty and one hundred.
• During the period of a controlled economy, the Chinese Yuan Renminbi was pegged to unrealistic exchange values, leading to stringent currency regulations.
• CNY, on the other hand, is the type of Renminbi traded in the onshore market – in other words, within mainland China.

CNY vs CNH

• The traditional character for yuan is also used in the currencies of other Chinese-speaking regions in the 2020s, including the New Taiwan dollar and the Hong Kong dollar.
• Exchange-rates.org has been a leading provider of currency quotes and precious metal prices for nearly 20 years.
• Compare our rate and fee with our competitors and see the difference for yourself.

So, the yuan is important for helping the country compete in international markets. Decisions made by the bank and outside economic signs matter a lot. The People’s Bank of China often changes the yuan’s exchange rate. Later, the People’s Bank of China made plans to standardize the yuan. This effort resulted in the yuan we know today, introduced in 1948.

This rate is tightly controlled by the People’s Bank of China and reflects the official monetary policy. Over the decades, the renminbi has undergone significant changes. Initially, it was tightly controlled and limited to domestic use. However, with China’s economic reforms and opening up to the global market in the late 20th century, the renminbi began to play a more prominent role in international trade and finance. Despite these developments, the currency remains subject to strict government regulations and capital controls. China uses currency controls to maintain the value of the Chinese yuan at a favorable level.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is responsible for issuing the renminbi and managing the country’s monetary policy. There is nothing wrong with the word jiao, it is just that most people use the word mao instead. The word they use is “kuai”, which literally means “piece”, and is the word used historically for coins made of silver or copper. The European merchants who started arriving in the early 16th Century went to China to buy silk and porcelain. Their Chinese partners wanted silver, preferably these large European-style silver coins.

It replaced the older currencies and made transactions simpler. Whether you need to make cross-border payments or FX risk management solutions, we’ve got you covered. Schedule international transfers across 130 currencies in 190+ countries. Each mao or jiao (these words are used interchangeably) is worth 1/10th of 1 RMB. How Chinese use mao or jiao in spoken conversation is similar to how you communicate cents in USD.

The CNY to USD exchange rate stands as the most widely used. The currency code for Chinese Yuan Renminbi is CNY, denoted by the symbol ¥. Get your Wise travel money card online, to send and spend money around the world at the mid-market exchange rate. A key part of this system is the floating exchange rate that China uses.

The Chinese yuan lost value during the COVID-19 pandemic, largely due to reduced economic activity and strict lockdowns. The yuan suffered its largest-ever monthly price drop in April 2022, losing 7% of its value over three months. The names of the Korean and Japanese currency units, won and fundamentals of web application development yen respectively, are cognates of Mandarin yuán, also meaning “round” in the Korean and Japanese languages. To view rates between the US Dollar and the Chinese Yuan Renminbi for a particular year, click on one of the links below.