SHANGHAISINGAPORE Oct 19 Reuters China is using loans agreed through its Belt and Road Initiative BRI to promote the yuan internationally, having already boosted the yuan39;s share of global payments to record levels.

During the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing that ended on Wednesday, China39;s policy banks signed a series of yuandenominated loan contracts with foreign lenders.

Many of the 130 countries that attended the forum belonged to the Global South, while most Western nations stayed away, and the presence of Russia39;s President Vladimir Putin lent support to Chinese President Xi Jinping39;s ambition for a new, multipolar world order.

You can see that the countries that are basically using the RMB for trade settlements are mostly countries that have visited Beijing or have come up with strategic agreements with Beijing, Russia being the most obvious one, said Alicia Garcia Herrero, Asia Pacific chief economist at Natixis.

Geostrategic tensions and high U.S. interest rates have helped Beijing increase the yuan39;s acceptability with some countries.

In September, the yuan also called the RMB accounted for 3.71 of global payments by value, hitting a record high, and almost doubling from 1.91 in January, according to SWIFT data released on Wednesday. Still, the yuan39;s share is negligible compared with the dollar39;s 46.6.

Rising SinoU.S. competition and the RussiaUkraine war, both pushed Beijing to persuade more countries to use yuan for settlement, despite…