The International Monetary Fund has called for a greater role for China’s renminbi in the world financial system. In a speech on Thursday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s boss, said adding emerging market currencies such as the renminbi to a basket that the IMF administers could add stability to the global system, according to Reuters.

The sentiment of his call will be music to China’s ears as it is internationalising the renminbi and promoting it as a future supplement to the dollar as the world’s reserve currency. But Strauss-Kahn’s specific proposal may not be China’s favoured technique.

The IMF boss was referring to an IMF currency basket known as the Special Drawing Rights system. It is currently composed of the dollar, sterling, euro and yen, but is closer to being an accounting unit than a currency.