China begins disclosing reserves portfolio to IMF

China has begun disclosing its foreign reserve portfolio to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in an effort to improve its data reveal transparency, the media reported on Thursday.

The IMF confirmed China's participation in the currency composition of official foreign exchange reserves (COFER) survey for the first time, said IMF spokesman Gerry Rice on Wednesday.

The IMF on Wednesday released the quarterly data on COFER for the second quarter of this year, and for the first time it published a list of economies that have agreed to have their names released as COFER participants, which includes China, Xinhua news agency reported.

The IMF said that China has reported a representative portfolio on a partial basis and will gradually increase the reported portfolio to full coverage of foreign exchange reserve assets within a period of around two to three years.

This move is part of China's efforts to subscribe to the IMF's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) and increase data transparency.

China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange has published the country's reserves in the Reserves Template format, a major element of the SDDS, marking an important step toward increased transparency, said Edwin Truman, a former US treasury official and now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Truman said that the move could help facilitate the RMB's inclusion in the IMF's special drawing right (SDR) basket this year.

According to the IMF, the global foreign exchange reserves rose to $11.46 trillion in the second quarter of this year, from $11.44 trillion in the first quarter.