In two stints as prime minister, she reversed one of Ukraine's more controversial privatisations and scrapped an opaque intermediary in the gas trade between Russia and Ukraine.

ECONOMIST: Ukraine's predicament

But that may reflect the Chinese regulator's decision to tighten up on triangular trade transactions, in which Chinese importers paid yuan to an intermediary, who then paid the foreign supplier in dollars.

ECONOMIST: The yuan is flowing beyond China��s borders��and back again

This first such emerging-market window for the Chinese currency, outside the intermediary role of the U.S. dollar, is expected to spur bilateral goods trade.

FORBES: Women to Watch In Asia