China slipped one position to fifth place in the 2026 global financial competitiveness rankings, according to a newly released report by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The ranking, which evaluates 31 economies, placed China behind the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
The report attributed China’s decline primarily to stock market volatility experienced throughout 2024 and 2025, which left the country trailing Germany by a narrow margin of 0.09 points. Liu Dongmin, a senior research fellow at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of CASS, noted that this volatility affected China’s overall score despite ongoing efforts to enhance its financial sector.
The global financial competitiveness index, introduced in 2021 and unveiled at the Global Digital Economy Conference in Beijing, assesses countries based on five pillars: financial industry competitiveness, currency strength, financial infrastructure, fintech capabilities, and international financial governance. Among these, China performed strongest in fintech, ranking third globally after the United States and the United Kingdom. Liu emphasized that China is the only top-10 country steadily narrowing its gap with the U.S. in this area, identifying fintech as its key competitive advantage and a crucial driver for future progress.
The report also highlighted the continued strength of the U.S. dollar, which underpinned an increase in the United States’ overall financial competitiveness score. In comparison, China’s currency, the yuan, has yet to fully reflect the nation’s economic scale and still possesses significant potential for further international use relative to the U.S. dollar and the euro, Liu added.
Experts also pointed to the role of emerging technologies in shaping global financial landscapes. Sara Huang, chief operating officer of the Hong Kong Generative AI Research and Development Centre, underlined the rapid commercialization and scale effects of AI and digital finance innovations within mainland China in 2026. She noted that collaboration between mainland China and Hong Kong has progressed beyond capital and talent exchanges to encompass complementary technologies and joint ecosystem development.
Huang anticipated that these partnerships would strengthen cross-border data and computing power connectivity within the Greater Bay Area, supporting broader regional integration. Overall, China’s CASS ranking reflects both current challenges in market stability and promising advances in fintech and digital finance innovation amid its ambitions to build a more influential global financial presence.