Inclusion of yuan in SDR basket to positively influence BRICS economies - president of New Development Bank

SHANGHAI, December 10. /TASS/. Inclusion of yuan in the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs - an international reserve asset, created by the International Monetary Fund to supplement its member-countries’ official reserves - TASS) will positively influence BRICS economies, first ever president of the BRICS New Development Bank Kundapur Vaman Kamath told TASS on Thursday. "First of all, I think it is commendable that this step was taken. I think that RMB (Ren Min Bi - yuan) clearly, given its trading strengths as a currency of choice across the world in terms of business, needs to be recognized," he said, adding that in this respect "what is done for us is something very interesting for New Development Bank." "In June of this year we said that we will also rely to a large extent on local currencies. That would mean use of RMB, use of rupee, real, ruble or rand as currencies that can be swapped in between and be used for lending in their own countries. So, this only endorses approach that we took, that we are on the right track to use local currencies for our business," the bank’s president said. He added that he considers reasonable to shift to payments in national currencies in mutual tradewithin BRICS. "If between our two countries a lot of trade is going on and one of the country’s currency is RMB, is it better to deal with this currency and the currency of the host or go to a third currency, which only complicates matters? We are saying that we move for a direct relationship and I would say that it’s the simplest way to do business," Kamath said. On November 30, 2015 the IMF board of directors decided to include the Chinese national currency in its SDR basket. The decision will become effective on October 1, 2016. Read more