China, Indonesia Roll Out New Framework for Local Currency Settlements

2025-09-12 01:31 By Chusnul Chotimah 1 min. read

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) and Bank Indonesia (BI) on Thursday officially launched a local currency settlement framework for bilateral transactions, aiming to facilitate greater use of local currencies in trade and investment between the two countries, as Xinhua reported.

The new framework is based on a memorandum of understanding signed in May this year, which upgrades the previous cooperation framework by expanding the scope of local currency settlements to cover all balance-of-payments items.

At the same time, the governors of the two central banks announced the start of a two-way trial of the China–Indonesia cross-border QR code interconnection project, which will enable transactions to be settled in local currencies.

The system is expected to be fully operational by 2025.

Pan Gongsheng, Governor of the PBOC, said that the two central banks should continue deepening cooperation in areas such as payment system integration, local currency usage, and digital currencies.



News Stream
China Adds 2.99 Million New Urban Jobs in Q1
China’s job market added 2.99 million new urban jobs in the first quarter of 2026, with the surveyed urban unemployment rate averaging 5.3%, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, as reported by local media. During the period, efforts focused on supporting employment for key groups, such as college graduates and young people, by seizing the critical window as graduates enter the job market and accelerating measures to help more people secure jobs as early as possible, ministry spokesperson Cui Pengcheng said at a news conference on Tuesday. China has set a target of around 5.5% for the surveyed urban unemployment rate in 2026 and aims to create more than 12 million new urban jobs this year. In collaboration with other departments, about 59,000 job fairs have been held nationwide, offering 36 million positions. Nearly 1 million “point-to-point” transportation trips have been provided for migrant workers, he added.
2026-04-28
China Opens Treasury Bond Futures to Foreign Investors
China’s securities regulator announced Friday that qualified foreign investors are allowed to participate in treasury bond futures trading starting the same day, with trading activities limited to hedging purposes, as reported by Xinhua Net. The China Securities Regulatory Commission said in a statement that the move is part of efforts to broaden the investment scope for qualified foreign investors and enrich interest rate risk management tools available to foreign institutional investors. The policy is also expected to enhance the appeal of yuan-denominated bond assets, improve the stability of foreign institutional investment behavior, and promote the high-quality development of both spot and futures bond markets, according to the regulator. The regulator added that it will roll out more measures to advance reform and development of the futures market and further promote the high-standard institutional opening-up of China’s capital market.
2026-04-26
Trump Threatens China with 50% Tariff if It Helps Iran
Days after US President Donald Trump threatened sweeping economic penalties on countries aiding Iran’s military in its conflict with the US and Israel, he clarified on Sunday that the warning also applies to China, according to The Economic Times. Trump had earlier said any country providing military equipment to Iran would face tariffs of up to 50% on all exports to the United States. “A country supplying military weapons to Iran will be immediately tariffed on any goods sold to the United States of America, 50%, effective immediately. There will be no exclusions or exemptions,” the US president said on his Truth Social platform. However, according to a Reuters report, Beijing has denied supplying arms to Tehran. The clarification came after the US and Iranian delegations failed to reach a peace deal following negotiations on Saturday.
2026-04-13