Washington

THE weekend announcement by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) of a new valuation basket for its international reserve currency unit known as Special Drawing Rights or SDRs following inclusion of the yuan has implications for the international monetary system as well as for China's currency.

With the move, which took effect on Saturday, the yuan - also known as the renminbi (RMB) - will take its place alongside other leading currencies including the dollar and the euro as part of the SDR basket, and will rank ahead of the yen and the pound in terms of its weighting in the basket.