If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that RMB now stands for Ronald McDonald Bonds. This month, the American hamburger chain became the first non-financial foreign company to issue debt denominated in the Chinese currency. The exercise raised a tiny RMB200m, or $29m if you still think in passé American-dollar terms. But it follows a flurry (should that be a McFlurry?) of offshore renminbi activity centred on Hong Kong. That has led some to believe that Beijing has started an experiment whose eventual aim is internationalisation of the renminbi and its establishment as a reserve currency to compete with the dollar.
如果你一直保持關注，就會知道目前RMB代表的是麥當勞債券(Ronald McDonald Bonds)。本月，這家美國漢堡連鎖店成為首家發行人民幣債券的非金融外國公司。此次發行規模僅有區區的2億元人民幣（以過時的美元價值衡量，合2900萬美元）。但在此次發行之前，離岸人民幣交易在香港已經十分活躍。這使得一些人相信，中國政府已展開了一場實驗，其最終目標是實現人民幣國際化，并成為儲備貨幣，與美元競爭。