The Chinese yuan is officially added to the IMF reserve basket on Sat. 1 Oct 2016, joining the big four: the US dollar, the euro, the yen, and the British pound as one of the International Monetary Fund’s lending currencies for emergency economic bailouts.
‘It’s an irreversible path towards opening up, integrating into the global economy and playing the economic game by the rules,’ - IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.
It is the first currency to be added to the list since the emergence of the euro in 1999.
It solidifies China’s global role as a dominant economic power and the internationalization China has been hoping for the enhanced legitimacy of its yuan.