Work underway on China-ASEAN yuan trade settlement agreement

China is working on an agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to settle trade in yuan, an official with China's central bank said Saturday. "It's currently underway," Jin Qi, assistant to the governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), told Xinhua when asked to comment on recent reports that China and ASEAN will sign a yuan-denominated trade settlement agreement late this year or next year. She made the brief remark on the sidelines of the third China-ASEAN Summit Forum on Financial Cooperation and Development held in Nanning, capital city of southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. China plans to sign a framework agreement with ASEAN to pave the way for banks in China and ASEAN countries to start exchanging yuan for ASEAN currencies, according to a Reuters report released Thursday quoting anonymous sources.