In spite of the fierce opposition of the US treasury Department, on November 30 the IMF finally approved the inclusion of the yuan in the Special Drawing Rights, the currency basket created in 1969 to complement the official reserves of the members of the multilateral organization. With this the Chinese currency will become, next October 1 (2016), part of the integrating fifth of the IMF basket. The financial influence of China on a world scale will continue to grow at high velocity: the weight of the yuan in the Special Drawing Rights will be greater in comparison with the Japanese yen and the pound sterling.
A few months ago there was considerable skepticism as to whether the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would incorporate the Chinese «people’s currency» (‘renminbi’) in their basket of currencies[1]. Finally, the doubts disappeared: in spite of the fierce opposition of the US Treasury Department, very soon the yuan will become the fifth member of the currency basket of the IMF[2].