A Vote Of Confidence For The RMB

A Vote Of Confidence For The RMB by Wei Zhang, Matthews Asia

On November 30, 2015, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced its decision to add the Chinese renminbi (RMB) to the basket of currencies that make up the Special Drawing Right (SDR). The IMF SDR basket inclusion criteria—last updated in 2000—requires that the SDR basket comprise currencies whose exports of goods and services had the largest value over a five-year period, and have been determined by the IMF to be “freely usable.” The Chinese  RMB has long met the first criteria of a currency whose exports of goods and services play a central role in global trade. However, during the last review in 2010, the  RMB was...