The yuan officially joins the IMF elite currency basket

The yuan has officially become part of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of currencies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the mainland’s state-run news agency Xinhua reports.

Effective from last Friday, the IMF said the yuan’s inclusion was a “historic milestone” for the mainland.

The SDR basket comprises the United States dollar, the European Union euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound. The yuan has a weight of 10.92 percent in the basket, which is reassessed every five years.

“[This is] a landmark moment in the yuan’s journey towards becoming a truly international currency,” says Wong Tung Shun, HSBC deputy chairman and chief executive was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying.