Lagarde of IMF on China currency

CCTV America’s Zou Yun asked Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund when the Chinese currency could be included in the special drawing rights (SDR) basket. “ I was actually asked properly and officially by the Chinese authorities to include a review of the current situation of RMB, with a view to include it into the SDR basket. And Chinese authorities know quite well what is desirable, what needs to be changed and improved in the monetary policy, in the financial sector in China. And I believe that what the Chinese authorities have actually indicated in terms of liberalization of interest rate, in terms of opening up of the capital account, in terms of deepening of the financial markets will naturally be conducive to an assessment of whether or not the RMB is freely usable. This is one of the key criteria. The other one is the export capacity and I think on that one, nobody has any doubts as to whether or not China fits the bill. As I said, its technical work that needs to be applied to it, on both sides, by the Chinese authorities themselves that they have announced it, and by us to assess and determine if the second criteria is met. ”