The yuan has officially become part of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket of currencies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the mainland’s state-run news agency Xinhua reports.

Effective from last Friday, the IMF said the yuan’s inclusion was a “historic milestone” for the mainland.

The SDR basket comprises the United States dollar, the European Union euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound. The yuan has a weight of 10.92 percent in the basket, which is reassessed every five years.

“[This is] a landmark moment in the yuan’s journey towards becoming a truly international currency,” says Wong Tung Shun, HSBC deputy chairman and chief executive was quoted by the South China Morning Post as saying.