IMF staff endorse granting the renminbi reserve currency status

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said China’s yuan had met the fund’s main criteria for inclusion as the fifth currency in its Special Drawing Rights basket of reserve currencies, The Financial Times reported. Lagarde said the yuan had long since met the requirement to be widely used, and that the IMF’s latest review had focused on whether it could be used as needed by the fund’s 188 member countries should they be given loans denominated in the currency. IMF staff on Friday sent a paper detailing their findings to the IMF board, which is expected to approve the recommendation at its upcoming meeting on November 30.