BEIJING - China will continue to expand cross-border use of its currency Renminbi, or yuan, this year, according to the central bank.

The global use of the Chinese yuan is one highlight of China's financial reforms over about a decade, Pan Gongsheng, deputy head of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said at a meeting Monday.

Pan said China would gradually make the RMB capital account convertible, consolidate market-oriented interest rate reform and improve macro prudential regulation.

In 2018, The central bank will "continue optimizing policies on cross-border RMB use, improving the infrastructure for the global use of RMB, meeting the reasonable demands of market entities and pushing the global use of RMB to a new level," said a statement released after the meeting.