UN welcomes IMF decision to free up $80bn for poor countries
The United Nations Secretary-General today welcomed the decision by the IMF to allow member countries to allocate Special Drawing Rights, saying it could unlock $80 billion for development aid.
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Mundo António Guterres
"This is a major and innovative step in expanding financing for sustainable development," said António Guterres, quoted in a press release issued today by the UN on the decision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to allow the use of this capital, known by the acronym SDR.
At issue is the possibility that banks dedicated to financing development could receive from IMF member states the funds that have not been used since the allocation of 650 billion dollars, about 597 billion euros, made following the covid-19 pandemic, which could now turn into up to 80 billion dollars, or 73.5 billion euros, according to the UN.
These funds, which result from an allocation of 'new capital' from the IMF that was distributed among the fund's member countries according to their quota, ended up benefiting the richest countries, since they have a larger quota in the Fund.
What the IMF administration has now decided is that, from an accounting point of view, these funds can be channeled to development banks or other prescribed SDR holders and, at the same time, remain accounted for in the accounts of those countries.
"This type of capital is a financial resource with perpetual maturity that has characteristics of both capital and debt," explains the UN statement, which notes that the IMF initiative "could immediately unlock up to $80 billion in much-needed resources for developing countries, including help to address the climate crisis."
In the statement, Guterres appeals to countries that are not using these SDRs to redirect them to multilateral development banks, which will buy them and then leverage them in the financial market to increase concessional loans to the poorest states.
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