(Yicai Global) July 1 -- China-Africa trade volume jumped 20 percent to USD204.2 billion last year and an increasing amount of it is now transacted in Chinese yuan. Last year nearly 80 percent of regular trade in goods was settled in yuan, an official from China's central bank has revealed.

The total yuan settlement in trade and investment between China and Africa in the past 10 years has reached nearly CNY440 billion (USD64 billion), with an average annual growth rate of about 73 percent, Zhou Chengjun, inspector of the Macroprudential Administration in the People's Bank of China, disclosed while attending the China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation Consultation in Changsha, Hunan province on June 28.

China has established PBOC-designated yuan clearing banks in South Africa and Zambia, and has penned bilateral local currency swap agreements with South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria, Zhou said. South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius and Nigeria also use the yuan as an official reserve asset, he added.

Some 33 commercial banks in Africa have joined the Chinese yuan cross-border clearing system, and commercial banks in 29 countries and regions have opened 180 inter-bank yuan accounts in China's commercial banks, according to incomplete statistics.

PBOC is very willing to promote trade and investment exchanges and sign yuan cooperation agreements with financial institutions and market entities in African countries, and it also welcomes African institutional investors to enter the Chinese financial market and share the benefits of China's rapid economic growth, Zhou stated.

China has been Africa's largest trading partner for 10 consecutive years, and Africa is China's second largest overseas engineering contracting market and fourth largest investment destination.