The inclusion of the yuan in the basket of reserve currency of the Bank of Spain (BDE) will strengthen economic relations between the European nation and China, professor of finance at the EAE Business School in Barcelona Ricardo Zion told Xinhua.

Zion explained that the bank's announcement that it was including the yuan as a reserve currency meant Spain had taken a step forward in giving greater importance to the Chinese currency in bilateral commercial relations, which were worth around 32 billion U.S. dollars in 2017.

"Commerce between China and Spain has grown significantly in recent years, so the decision will probably see even more trade between the two nations," he said, adding that it still wasn't clear when the BDE's decision would come into effect.

"The Bank of Spain is following the steps of the German Bundesbank. Recently, other banks have made similar decisions to confirm that part of the reserve of their central banks is in yuan," Zion said.

He said the yuan's status and credibility had benefited from being included in the basket of reserve currency by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Oct. 1, 2016.

Following that moment, "it (the yuan) has grown in importance and has become part of what had previously been a group of four currencies made up of the U.S. dollar, the euro, the yen and the British pound," he said.