CRI听力:IMF Says Yuan on Path to Inclusion in SDR Basket

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde says her organization will do an assessment this year on whether to include the Chinese currency into its supplementary foreign exchange reserves (SDR).

Lagarde made the comments at the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington D.C.

The assessment of a currency's eligibility to be added into the SDR is based on the export capacity of the country where the currency is being issued and the usability of the currency as an international currency.

Lagarde says the assessment will determine whether the Chinese currency meets the criteria.

"I believe that what the Chinese authorities have actually indicated in terms of liberalization of interest rates, in terms of opening up of the capital account, in terms of deepening of the financial markets, actually will naturally be conducive to an assessment of whether or not the renminbi is freely usable, which is, as you know, one of the key criteria. The other one is the export capacity and I think that on that one, nobody has any doubt as to whether or not China fits the bill."

The SDR is an international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969 to replenish the official reserves of its member states.

Currently the SDR basket consists of four currencies - the U.S. dollar, euro, pound sterling, and Japanese yen.

Last month, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang asked Lagarde to include the yuan in its SDR basket, pledging to speed up the renminbi's basic convertibility.

The IMF's board will hold an initial discussion on China's request next month.

It will also conduct a full five-yearly review of the SDR's composition later in the year before making a final decision in November.

If approved, the yuan would be the first emerging market currency to join the SDR.