国际货币基金组织(IMF)执董会11月30日批准人民币加入特别提款权(SDR)货币篮子，新的货币篮子将于2016年10月1日正式生效。

特别提款权(Special Drawing Right，SDR)，亦称“纸黄金”(Paper Gold)，最早发行于1970年，是国际货币基金组织根据会员国认缴的份额分配的，可用于偿还国际货币基金组织债务、弥补会员国政府之间国际收支逆差的一种账面资产。

The International Monetary¹ Fund (IMF)'s executive board on Monday approved the inclusion ofChina's currency renminbi (RMB) in its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket as an internationalreserve currency.

The IMF board, which represented the fund's 188 member countries, decided² that the RMB "metall existing criteria³," the IMF said in a statement after completing the regular five-yearly review ofthe SDR basket here.

Effective from Oct. 1, 2016, the RMB will be included in the SDR basket as a fifth currency, alongwith the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen⁴ and the British pound, it said.

Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, said, the board's decision is "an importantmilestone in the integration⁵ of the Chinese economy into the global financial system."

"It is also a recognition of the progress that the Chinese authorities have made in the past years inreforming China's monetary and financial systems," she said.

"The continuation and deepening of these efforts will bring about a more robust⁶ internationalmonetary and financial system, which in turn will support the growth and stability of China and theglobal economy," she added.

The RMB will have a weighting of 10.92 percent in the new SDR basket, while the respectiveweighting of other currencies in the basket are 41.73 percent for the U.S. dollar, 30.93 percent foreuro, 8.33 percent for the Japanese yen and 8.09 percent for the British pound, according to theIMF.

"Launching the new SDR basket on October 1, 2016 will provide sufficient lead time for the Fund,its members and other SDR users to adjust to these changes," the Washington-basedinternational lender said.

The SDR is an international reserve asset created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its membercountries' official reserves. It can be exchanged among governments for freely usable currencies intimes of need.

The IMF reviews the currencies in the SDR basket every five years, and whether to add the RMB tothe basket is a major issue for this year's assessment⁷.

To meet the IMF's criteria, Chinese authorities have undertaken a series of reforms in recentmonths, such as improving its foreign exchange rate formation system, opening up its interbankbond and forex markets, and improving data transparency by subscribing⁸ to the IMF's SpecialData Dissemination⁹ Standard (SDDS).

Nicholas Lardy, a senior researcher with the Washington-based Peterson Institute of InternationalEconomics, told Xinhua that "China has taken enormous efforts to address the operationalshortcomings and that dramatically increases the probability of yuan's inclusion."

Meg Lundsager, a former U.S. Executive Director at the IMF, told Xinhua that what is important is itshows the evolution of the system is possible, reflecting what China has undertaken over the pastyears.

"China is clearly on the path of reform. It wants to show yuan is widely traded and freely usable bythe IMF definition," said Lundsager, now a senior researcher with the Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank.

At the G20 summit in Antalya of Turkey, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the inclusion of the yuanwill help increase the representation and attraction of the SDR, improve the international monetarysystem, and safeguard global financial stability.

Eswar Prasad, the former head of the IMF's China Division, said IMF wants to avoid another knockon its legitimacy¹⁰, already tainted¹¹ by the lack of progress on giving emerging markets their rightfulvoting shares.

"Excluding the yuan from the SDR could crystallize the concerns of policy makers¹² in emergingmarkets that the IMF remains¹³ an institution run by and for the benefit of advanced economies," henoted.

Being one of global reserve currencies will prompt central banks to increase their holdings of yuanin the reserve currency portfolio¹⁴. Private sectors¹⁵ will also be encouraged to gradually buy moreyuan-denominated assets.

However, the global reserve currency status will not automatically turn yuan into a major globalreserve currency which is a choice of the market.

"So it's very important to keep China on path of reform. It's tough that everything you do isclosely scrutinized¹⁶ by the market. But China can't backtrack in a major way. Inclusion will re-enforce the trend," Lundsager said.

In an article published in the People's Daily last week, Chinese central bank governor ZhouXiaochuan committed himself to making the RMB fully convertible¹⁷ and freely usable within fiveyears.

By then, Zhou said he expected more than a third of the world's international trade to beconducted through the RMB.

IMF当天发表声明说，执董会当天完成了五年一度的SDR货币篮子审议，认为人民币符合“入篮”的所有现有标准。自2016年10月1日起，人民币被认定为可自由使用货币，并将与美元、欧元、日元和英镑一道构成SDR货币篮子。

声明还说，为确保各方有充足时间进行调整以适应新的变化，新的货币篮子将于2016年10月1日正式生效。SDR的价值将由包括美元、欧元、人民币、日元和英镑在内的篮子内五种货币的加权平均值决定。

IMF认为，人民币“入篮”将使货币篮子多元化并更能代表全球主要货币，从而有助于提高SDR作为储备资产的吸引力。

IMF还将篮子货币的权重调整为：美元占41.73%，欧元占30.93%，人民币占10.92%，日元占8.33%，英镑占8.09%。

IMF总裁拉加德当天在执董会结束后说，人民币“入篮”是中国经济融入全球金融体系的重要里程碑，也是IMF对中国过去几年改革货币和金融体系取得进展的认可。

拉加德说，持续和深化这些努力将带来更加强劲的国际货币和金融体系，反过来也会支持中国经济与全球经济的增长与稳定。

SDR是IMF于1969年创设的一种国际储备资产，用以弥补成员国官方储备不足。

早在2010年，国际货币基金组织就曾对人民币“入篮”的可行性进行评估。自那以后，中国采取了一系列措施加快人民币国际化进程。今年以来， 中国出台一系列措施加快人民币市场化进程，其中包括公布外汇储备货币构成、向外国央行等开放银行间债券市场和外汇市场、完善人民币汇率中间价报价机制、采 纳IMF数据公布特殊标准等。这些举措不仅为人民币“入篮”扫除了技术性障碍，也向国际社会释放了中国坚定金融改革、开放资本市场的积极信号，得到国际机构和投资者的赞许。