The official currency of China, commonly known internationally as the yuan, is the renminbi.
Renminbi means “people’s currency” in Mandarin Chinese. It is the currency issued by the People’s Bank of China, while yuan is the principal unit used when stating prices and amounts. For example, a price may be described as several yuan even though the currency itself is the renminbi.
The renminbi was introduced by the People’s Republic of China in 1948, shortly before the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. Its ISO 4217 code is CNY. The yuan is divided into 10 jiao, and each jiao is divided into 10 fen, although fen has little practical use today.
The renminbi is sometimes incorrectly called the “Chinese yen” or treated as interchangeable with the Japanese yen. Their names share historical linguistic connections, but they are separate currencies.