CHINA's central bank welcomed on Saturday a statement by Christine Lagarde, managing director of International Monetary Fund, on the body's quinquennial review of the Special Drawing Rights basket of currencies.
Lagarde said on Friday that staff experts in their report to the IMF Executive Board assessed the yuan, or renminbi," meets the requirements to be a 'freely usable' currency and, accordingly, the staff proposes that the Executive Board determine the yuan to be freely usable and include it in the SDR basket as a fifth currency, along with the pound, euro, yen and the US dollar."
"I support the staff's findings. The decision, of course, on whether the RMB should be included in the SDR basket rests with the IMF's Executive Board. I will chair a meeting of the Board to consider the issue on November 30," said Lagarde.
The People's Bank of China expressed appreciation for IMF staff experts' analysis and suggestion, hailing their opinion as a recognition for China's achievements on economic growth and opening up.
It will be a win-win result for both China and the world if the yuan could be included in the SDR basket as it will strengthen the SDR's representativeness and attraction and optimise the current international currency system, the PBOC said.
Hoping that all relevant sides could support the yuan's inclusion in the SDR, China is looking forward to the Executive Board's decision on November 30 and will respect the result, according to the PBOC.
In future, China will unswervingly continue to push forward the strategic plan of comprehensively deepening reform and will steadily promote financial reform and opening, it said.
Source: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/finance/China-welcomes-IMFs-yuan-statement/shdaily.shtml
