The International Monetary Fund (IMF) added China's yuan to its group of key globalcurrencies this week, a historic development that gives new status to the world's second-largest economy.

 

A bank clerk counts U.S. dollar banknotes on bundles of 100 Chinese yuan banknotes at a bank in Anhui province. China's yuan was admitted to the IMF's group of top world currencies this week. (REUTERS/ Stringer China).

 

It is "a sign that China is rising ever faster and further on the global economic stage," reported the BBC. China now accounts for more than 15 percent of the global gross economic output, nearly three times what it was a decade ago, said the Wall Street Journal.

 

The IMF said the yuan, also called the renminbi, will be added to the group of reserve currencies. Those include the U.S. dollar, Europe's euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound. These currencies are in the IMF's Special Drawing Rights group. The IMF uses this group of reserve currencies to make emergency loans to its 188 member nations.