BEIJING - The Chinese currency yuan will become the world's third largest currency after the US dollar and Euro by 2020.

A report by the International Monetary Institute of Renmin University of China and the Bank of Communications, published on Sunday, said that the yuan internationalization index had risen to 1.69 by the end of 2013 from 0.92 a year before.

The main impetuses for the internationalization of the yuan come from cross-border trade settlement and direct investment.

In 2013, China's cross-border yuan trade settlement hit 4.63 trillion yuan ($759 billion), up 57.5 percent year on year, and yuan direct investment totaled 534 billion yuan, up 90 percent year on year.

The institute and the bank have been jointly issuing yuan internationalization reports annually since 2012.

China's June forex purchase likely to rebound	RMB will cash in on growth