Cross-border settlements in Yuan are expected to increase  as Cambodia  continues  to deepen its  economic  dependency on  China,  a central bank official said yesterday. Chea Serey, director general of National Bank of Cambodia, said  that in  2016 alone  cross-border settlements  in  Chinese  currency amounted to  2.5bn (or $377mn), or approximately  7%  of the two  countries’  total  trade and investment.  While  this  was still  a small  part of total  bilateral  trade, Yuan  settlements  would  further increase  as more banks facilitate transactions and Chinese investors look to de-risk away from the US  dollar, she added. Pan Hongsheng, deputy secretary-general of the People’s Bank of China, said yesterday that the yuan is increasingly gaining strength internationally as an official payment currency, especially after it was included in the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Right (SDR)  basket in 2016. The yuan is the fifth currency recognized by the SDR after the US dollar, euro, Japanese yen and the British pound. (Source: Phnom Penh Post)