Central bank issues new bill, ships more cash through HK

China's central bank, which issued a new 100 yuan bill on Thursday, has been transporting ever-increasing quantities of renminbi to foreign countries via Hong Kong to meet a growing demand for the currency.

The People's Bank of China transported 50 billion yuan ($7.85 billion) in cash to Hong Kong, the country's offshore RMB center, during the first nine months of this year, an increase of more than 46 percent year-on-year, according to Zhang Jianjun, director of the central bank's sub-central branch in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

"From 2004 to 2007, we shipped less than 5 billion yuan cash to Hong Kong every year. We transported about 27 billion yuan in cash annually since the demand for RMB cash surged in2008," said Zhang, whose organization is responsible for 83 percent of China's cross-border RMB cash transportation.