The International Monetary Fund has decided that China’s currency will not be included in a basket of reserve currencies for at least a year, delaying a move some had expected to take place as soon as January even as it took pains to stress the decision was largely procedural.
The IMF is due to decide by the end of the year whether to include the renminbi in its so-called special drawing rights, the elite group of currencies it uses to determine the value of its own de facto currency.
The decision depends on the IMF determining just how “freely usable” the tightly controlled Chinese currency has become. The push for inclusion has been driving a series of reforms by Beijing, which is keen to see the renminbi labelled a reserve currency alongside the dollar, euro, yen and sterling.