China's push to add renminbi to SDR basket nearing finish line

The depreciation also found unexpected allies. The Wall Street Journal wrote on Sept 2 that "The move has won over the IMF." In the eyes of the financial daily, "a move to make the country's exchange rate more market-determined...combined with Beijing's careful management of the currency...is bolstering China's bid to get the yuan included" in the SDR.

The Wall Street Journal's position is not surprising, when seen from a common vantage point.

The IMF said that, to join the SDR, a currency must be "freely usable," referring to its popularity in international trades. However, the depreciation of the renminbi in no way affected the ability to use the currency in this way.

According to The Economist, in 2014, the renminbi was the 7th most used currency in terms of global reserves. If the IMF therefore pays more attention to the influence of the renminbi than to accusations of capital controls, adding it to the SDR will become far more viable.

China will also continue to push ahead financial reforms with the hope that the renminbi can be included in the SDR basket later this year, said Yi Gang, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, at the IMF annual talks in Lima.

China has opened its inter-bank bond market and forex market to overseas financial institutions and has been promoting data transparency, following SDR requirements, Yi said.

The central bank has recently further freed the renminbi exchange rate through changes to the central parity rate mechanism to make the exchange rate more flexible, he said.