Cross-border yuan settlement reached 79 billion yuan ($12 billion) in Xiamen in the first four months of 2016, an annual increase of 33.5 percent.
The growth rate was 36.1 percentage points lowered than in the same period of 2015, reflecting the depreciation of the yuan and sluggish foreign trade.
Of the total settlement in the period, commodity exports accounted for 21.9 billion yuan, down 20.2 percent from 2015, while the capital category accounted for 45.3 billion yuan, up 101.4 percent from 2015.
The cross-border yuan settlement has shown rapid growth since Xiamen in Fujian province started the trial settlement operation in June 2010. The settlement volume grew from 24.6 billion yuan in 2011 to 259.1 billion yuan in 2015, an 80 percent annual growth rate.
China has decided to extend its visa waiver policy to ordinary passport holders from Canada and the United Kingdom starting from Feb 17.
Forty-one new port-of-entry duty-free shops have been established nationwide, with Xiamen Xiang'an International Airport, Xiamen Wutong Passenger Wharf, and Xiamen International Cruise Center included on the list.
