A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has arrived in Beijing to assess whether the yuan should be included in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket, the English edition of Chinese newspaper China Daily reported.

The SDR basket is an international reserve asset that currently includes the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen, the British pound and the euro. The composition of the basket is reviewed every five years.

The inclusion of the yuan would be “a milestone in the push for the yuan’s internationalisation”, said Ma Jun, chief economist at the country’s central lender, the People’s Bank of China, as quoted by China Daily.

The IMF’s final decision, the news outlet added, would depend on whether the yuan meets SDR basket criteria – i.e. that it is a currency from one of the world’s top four exporters and that it is “freely usable”. There must also be a vote in favour by the IMF Executive Board.

According to the news report, which quotes a statement from the IMF, the team from the Washington-based organisation will discuss technical issues with Chinese officials. The preliminary results of such discussions should be released in July, IMF Deputy Managing Director Zhu Min had said earlier.

Although an informal IMF board meeting is due to be held in the middle of the year, the formal review would only be completed by the end of the year.

A similar assessment was made in 2010, when the yuan failed the IMF’s test on the ground it was not considered “freely usable”.