IMF names Chinese yuan elite world currency

RMB banknotes
(Image credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

The International Monetary Fund added the Chinese yuan to its list of elite world currencies Monday, a designation that acknowledges China's growing presence as a global economic power, The New York Times reports.

The yuan, also known as the renminbi, joins the dollar, the euro, the pound, and the yen in getting the nod from the IMF. It's a move that should allow for the yuan to be more widely traded in foreign exchange markets, Reuters reports. But at least for now, the addition to the Special Drawing Rights basket is primarily symbolic.

"There's this obsession with the SDR, and it's completely out of proportion to its economic impact, which is likely to be trivial," former Federal Reserve Board governor Randall Kroszner told the Times. "It may be that in the drive to get into the SDR, they may make changes that make the renminbi more attractive for international market participants."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.