The Chinese currency, the yuan, became in August the fourth most popular globally for payment settlement, according to a report of international payment provider SWIFT.

It was the highest such ranking achieved by the yuan and means it has overtaken the Japanese yen in payment popularity terms. The yuan accounted for 2.79 percent of worldwide payments, compared with 1.39 percent in January 2014, said the report, as quoted by news agency Reuters on Tuesday.

In August global payments in yuan increased in value by 9.13 percent year-on-year. The amount of payments across all currencies dropped by 8.3 percent year-on-year in the same period, said SWIFT.

The yuan now only trails the U.S. dollar, the euro and sterling, having risen from merely the 12th most-used global currency in 2012.

A report on Tuesday from the International Monetary Fund advised the Chinese Government that a floating exchange rate for the yuan would “enhance monetary policy autonomy and help the economy adjust to external shocks, as China continues to become more integrated into both the global economy and global financial markets”.

China’s central bank devalued the country’s currency by the most in two decades in August.