ECB shifts some reserves to yuan from U.S. dollars

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank has switched 500 million euros worth of its U.S. dollar reserves to yuan, reflecting the increased use of the Chinese currency and Beijing's importance as one of the euro area's largest trading partners, it said on Tuesday.

"The ECB sold a small portion of its US dollar holdings, which remain the largest portfolio, leaving the overall size of the ECB’s foreign reserves unchanged. "The ECB's foreign reserves now comprise US dollars, Japanese yen, Chinese renminbi, gold and SDRs.

The investment also came after the IMF determined the yuan to be a freely usable currency and approved its inclusion in the Special Drawing Right (SDR) basket as the fifth currency, alongside the U.S. dollar, the euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound, the ECB said.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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