NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Billionaire financier George Soros said on Wednesday that Hong Kong could develop into an offshore center for financial transactions in China's currency, just as London became the market for eurodollars.
Speaking at a Reuters Newsmaker event, Soros said he doubted that authorities would move to merge the Hong Kong dollar with the Chinese yuan, also known as the renminbi.
"I don't think that the Hong Kong dollar is going to merge with the renminbi, I think they're going to keep them separate," Soros said of the two currencies.
"But I think you'll see Hong Kong develop as an offshore market the same way as London became the market in which you paid offshore eurodollars," he said.
Soros failed to expand on a potential market for offshore renminbis, but he clearly indicated in other comments the importance of China's economy to world growth and commerce.
The yuan is now the strongest currency in the world, he said.
The market for eurodollars, U.S. currency held in banks outside the United States and used in international transactions, developed in the 1950s in London. (Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Dan Grebler)