About 7% of China's foreign trade in the first quarter was done in transactions denominated in yuan, up from 0.5% a year earlier, illustrating the Chinese currency's rapidly growing -- though still small -- international role.

　　今年第一季度，中國(guó)對(duì)外貿(mào)易約7%是以人民幣結(jié)算的交易，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高于上年同期的0.5%，這表明人民幣的國(guó)際角色在快速增長(zhǎng)，盡管依然較小。

　　China's banks handled a total of 360.3 billion yuan ($55.2 billion) in cross-border trade deals denominated in the Chinese currency in the first three months of the year, Xinhua news agency reported Monday, citing a central-bank official. The volume was up from 309.3 billion yuan in the fourth quarter of 2010, or 5.7% of foreign trade, and was nearly 20 times the 18.4 billion yuan in such deals in the first quarter of 2010, according to earlier data from the People's Bank of China.

　　新華社在周一的報(bào)道中援引一位央行官員的話說(shuō)，2011年一季度銀行累計(jì)辦理跨境貿(mào)易人民幣結(jié)算業(yè)務(wù)3603億元（合552億美元）。根據(jù)中國(guó)人民銀行之前的數(shù)據(jù)，這個(gè)數(shù)字高于2010年第四季度的3093億元（占對(duì)外貿(mào)易的5.7%），是2010年第一季度184億元的近20倍。

　　Until a couple of years ago, effectively all of China's foreign trade was done in dollars or, to a much lesser extent, other foreign currencies, a byproduct of the country's tight controls on the use of its currency outside its borders.

　　Bloomberg News直到幾年前，中國(guó)所有的對(duì)外貿(mào)易實(shí)際上都是以美元或其他外國(guó)貨幣結(jié)算（后者的比例要小得多），這是中國(guó)嚴(yán)格控制在境外使用人民幣造成的。直到幾年前，中國(guó)所有的對(duì)外貿(mào)易實(shí)際上都是以美元或其他外國(guó)貨幣結(jié)算（后者的比例要小得多），這是中國(guó)嚴(yán)格控制在境外使用人民幣造成的。

　　Since the global financial crisis, however, China's leaders have become increasingly determined to reduce the use of the U.S. dollar. In recent months, they have aggressively pushed the expansion of yuan trading outside mainland China, setting up Hong Kong as a trading hub and encouraging yuan trading in major financial centers such as New York and London.

　　不過(guò)，自全球金融危機(jī)以來(lái)，中國(guó)的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人開始日益堅(jiān)定地要減少美元的使用。僅幾個(gè)月，他們積極推進(jìn)人民幣交易在內(nèi)地以外地區(qū)的發(fā)展，把香港建成一個(gè)交易中心并在紐約和倫敦等主要金融中心促進(jìn)人民幣交易。

　　They also have entered into deals with Russia and Brazil to give companies the option of settling trade deals in local currency rather than in dollars. And Chinese officials have allowed some foreign firms to issue bonds in yuan, including Caterpillar Inc., McDonald's Corp. and Unilever NV.

　　他們還與俄羅斯和巴西達(dá)成協(xié)議，讓公司能夠選擇以當(dāng)?shù)刎泿哦敲涝Y(jié)算交易。中國(guó)官員還允許卡特彼勒（Caterpillar Inc.）、麥當(dāng)勞（McDonald's Corp.）和聯(lián)合利華（Unilever NV）等部分外資公司發(fā)行人民幣債券。

　　In 2009, the government began allowing exporters and importers in certain regions to use yuan to buy or sell goods abroad with specified trading patterns. The trials started slowly -- yuan deals accounted for just 0.1% of trade in the 2009 fourth quarter -- but have expanded rapidly.

　　2009年，政府開始允許指定地區(qū)的進(jìn)出口商使用人民幣通過(guò)特定交易方式買賣國(guó)外商品。試點(diǎn)工作啟動(dòng)緩慢，2009年第四季度人民幣交易僅占貿(mào)易總額的0.1%，但后來(lái)迅速發(fā)展。

　　The process has been helped by the government's move last June to let the yuan start appreciating against the dollar, albeit gradually. Perceptions that the yuan is undervalued and is therefore likely to appreciate have made trading companies outside China more willing to take the currency as payment.

　　去年6月政府允許人民幣開始對(duì)美元逐漸升值的舉動(dòng)推動(dòng)了試點(diǎn)工作的進(jìn)程。由于人們認(rèn)為人民幣被低估因而有可能升值，中國(guó)境外的貿(mào)易公司更愿意接受用人民幣支付的款項(xiàng)。

　　Indeed, most of the yuan-based trade deals so far have involved Chinese companies using the Chinese currency to buy goods from others. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a state-run think tank, said in a study issued Monday that about 80% of yuan trade in the first three quarters of 2010 was accounted for by China's imports.

　　的確，目前大多數(shù)人民幣結(jié)算的貿(mào)易交易都是中國(guó)公司用人民幣購(gòu)買其他國(guó)家商品的交易。國(guó)家智庫(kù)中國(guó)社會(huì)科學(xué)院在周一發(fā)表的一份研究報(bào)告中說(shuō)，2010年前三季度80%的人民幣結(jié)算交易都來(lái)自中國(guó)的進(jìn)口。

　　Mark Williams, an economist at research firm Capital Economics, said there is likely a limit to how much foreigners will be willing to accept in yuan payments, because there are still strict curbs on their ability to invest those assets, the result of the still-extensive capital controls that help Beijing manage the yuan's exchange rate. "There's a contradiction between these aims to internationalize the currency on the one hand and to maintain your hold on the value of the currency on the other," he said.

　　研究公司Capital Economics的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家威廉姆斯（Mark Williams）說(shuō)，外國(guó)人接受人民幣支付的意愿可能會(huì)有一個(gè)限度，因?yàn)橹袊?guó)依然在進(jìn)行廣泛的資本控制，這些措施有助于管理人民幣匯率，但外國(guó)人用所持的人民幣進(jìn)行投資能力受到抑制。威廉姆斯說(shuō)，一方面要促進(jìn)人民幣國(guó)際化，一方面要維持對(duì)人民幣價(jià)值的控制，二者相互矛盾。

　　The growing use of yuan to pay for imports also may be having the unintended effect of helping pump up the Chinese central bank's holdings of foreign currency, which soared by $197.4 billion in the first quarter, to $3.0447 trillion. That stockpile has caused headaches for Beijing, which holds most of it in U.S. government debt and other dollar assets.

　　 進(jìn)口貿(mào)易越來(lái)越多的使用人民幣支付還可能會(huì)意想不到地幫助增加中國(guó)央行的外匯儲(chǔ)備。中國(guó)外匯儲(chǔ)備今年一季度增加了1974億美元，達(dá)到3.0447萬(wàn)億美元。大量的外匯儲(chǔ)備讓北京方面頭疼，大部分都是美國(guó)國(guó)債和其他美元資產(chǎn)。

　　The central bank amasses those reserves because it must buy dollars that flow into the country from sources like exporters and foreign investors. In the past, when Chinese importers had to use foreign currency, they had to buy it from the central bank, which acted to reduce the size of the reserves. But payments that are made in yuan do nothing to eat into the reserves.

　　央行囤積這些儲(chǔ)備是因?yàn)楸仨氋?gòu)買從出口商和外國(guó)投資商等渠道流入中國(guó)的美元。央行提出要減少外匯儲(chǔ)備規(guī)模。過(guò)去在中國(guó)進(jìn)口商必須使用外國(guó)貨幣時(shí)，他們必須從央行購(gòu)買。但以人民幣支付的款項(xiàng)并不侵蝕外匯儲(chǔ)備。

　　Economists say about $130 billion of the first quarter's increase in China's foreign-exchange reserves isn't explained by the usual causes, such as export revenue and foreign investment, indicating there may have been big inflows of speculative "hot money" during the quarter. Mr. Williams said, however, that the use of yuan to pay for imports could explain roughly $40 billion of that increase.

　　 經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家說(shuō)，中國(guó)外匯儲(chǔ)備第一季度約1300億美元的增幅并不是由于出口收入和外國(guó)投資等常規(guī)原因，他們暗示這一季度可能有大量投機(jī)性“熱錢”流入。威廉姆斯說(shuō)，不過(guò)進(jìn)口使用人民幣支付可以解釋其中約400億美元的增幅。