LONDON Nov. 22 (People's Daily Online)—— Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued the statement on 13 November stated：

“IMF staff assesses that the RMB meets the requirements to be a ‘freely usable’ currency and, accordingly, the staff proposes that the Executive Board determine the RMB to be freely usable and include it in the SDR basket as a fifth currency, along with the British pound, euro, Japanese yen, and the U.S. dollar.”

Mark Boleat, Policy Chairman of City of London Corporation and Chairman of the Steering Committee of City of London’s RMB Initiative, expressed his support today：

“The City of London initiative supports the currency’s inclusion on the basis that the RMB already meets much of the SDR’s currency criteria, having developed rapidly since the 2010 review carried out by the IMF. The world can benefit from having multiple reserve currencies, and with the RMB playing an increasingly important role as a trade and investment currency, it is already becoming well integrated within the international monetary system.

“Although RMB internationalisation is expected to progress regardless of the IMF’s decision, admission of the currency to the SDR basket will help to build confidence in the long term nature of the trend of wider international RMB usage, encourage more central banks to hold the RMB as part of their FX reserves and, by extension, the availability and demand for RMB-denominated assets.” (Bai Tianxing)