What is China entitled to receive in exchange for its financial support of the eurozone? An end to Europe’s arms embargo? Recognition as a ‘market economy’ within the WTO? More voting power in the International Monetary Fund? Few really know what might be on China’s list.
But it does seem that one of the things China most wants is for the yuan to be included in the basket of currencies that make up IMF’s Special Drawing Right (SDR), alongside the dollar, the euro, the yen and the pound.
China’s desire to put a yuan-inclusive SDR at the heart of the international monetary system isn’t new: the idea featured prominently in a March 2009 speech by the central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, which suggested that a bigger role for the SDR could be a credible step on the way to creating a super-sovereign reserve currency.