China must wait until at least next year before yuan can join exclusive currency club

The International Monetary Fund says China must wait until next year to join an exclusive club of the world's top currencies.

The IMF's board voted to leave unchanged until Sept. 30, 2016 a basket of currencies used in IMF operations. China, world's second-biggest economy, had wanted the IMF to include its currency, the yuan, in the basket along with the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound and Japanese yen starting Jan. 1.

Unlike the other currencies, the yuan does not trade freely. China sets a daily target and lets the yuan trade 2 percent higher or lower. Last week, Beijing devalued the yuan and said it would give market forces more say in determining the exchange rate — a move the IMF praised as a step in the right direction.