IMF to raise weight of renminbi in SDR

The International Monetary Fund’s decision to raise the renminbi’s weight in a key global reserve asset marked the steady progress of the renminbi’s internationalization, reflecting the currency’s growing global heft and the achievement of China’s financial opening-up, industry experts said.

In the latest valuation review of the Special Drawing Right — an international reserve asset also known as the SDR, the IMF raised the weight of the renminbi in the basket of currencies that make up the SDR by 1.36 percentage points to 12.28 percent, the People’s Bank of China, the nation’s central bank, said on May 15.

Effective on Aug 1, the weight increase will allow the renminbi to continue to account for the thirdlargest share in the basket, behind only the US dollar and the euro.

SUN FEI / XINHUA The Jimu 1 aerostat is prepared for takeoff on May 15 in the Tibet autonomous region. It collected water at a world-record altitude of 9,032 meters on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.