IMF's acknowledgement of yuan as major global currency expected to bring fresh change to China
The International Monetary Fund has added on Monday the yuan as part of the major global currencies along with the dollar, pound, euro, and yen, hopefully bringing fresh change to China.
Reuters reported that according to Chinese policy makers, said reforms might not yet happen that fast in the next few months. The inclusion of the yuan as part of the IMF basket gives economic conservatives stronger reasons to resist reform, pointing out the period after China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"The direct impact won't be felt in the near term, not least because implementation of the new basket won't be until Q3 2016. However the symbolic importance cannot be overlooked," said Linklaters Asia head of capital markets Andrew Malcolm in a report by The Guardian. "By effectively endorsing the renminbi as a freely useable currency, it sends a strong signal about China's importance in the global financial markets."
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that as IMF was preparing to vote for the inclusion of the yuan to the reserves basket, the currency rebounded from earlier losses. At 9 a.m. on November 30, the yuan went up 0.3 percent against the dollar in Hong Kong trading. Just four minutes earlier, it was 0.14 minutes weaker.
A slower pace means including the yuan in the IMF basket would give the currency a boost. Just this year, the yuan dropped almost 3 percent against the dollar, the lowest it has fallen since the 2005 revaluation.
The inclusion of the yuan to the reserve basket is a relief to Chinese authorities as they try to remove the worries of investors on the Chinese economic slowdown and its problematic stock market. China believes that the addition of the yuan would make the currency more desirable as a reserve currency for investors. This indicates that yuan's status is increasing along with China in the global finance.