China may eschew the multi-billion dollar annual benefits enjoyed by major reserve currency seigniorage - the revenue that a government raises by printing money that is held overseas - as this would result in Beijing having to run a trade deficit, according to Lawrence Lau, chairman of the Hong Kong arm of China sovereign wealth fund CIC.

The authorities in Beijing have undertaken a major offensive to use China's clout as the world's second largest economy to promote the use of the renminbi in