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IMF’s Issue of Fresh SDRs -Prabhat Patnaik

-Networkideas.org 

The International Monetary Fund has announced a fresh issue of $650 billion Special Drawing Rights in August which would be distributed among member countries in proportion to their IMF quotas. This amount is less than what had been demanded by many, which was a trillion dollars, but it does represent a small temporary comfort for the heavily indebted third world countries.

Almost all of it will go into the pockets of the private financial institutions who are the creditors of the heavily indebted third world countries, but within the system as it exists it represents a relief for these countries. The paltriness of the relief however arises from the fact that the distribution of SDRs is in accordance with quotas, which means that the bulk of it goes to the advanced countries, and only a tiny amount to the third world. Of the 190 member countries of the IMF, 55 rich countries will get $375 billion while 135 relatively poorer countries will get only $275 billion. And of the latter, 29 “low income” countries will get only $27 billion, even though according to the IMF’s own calculations, these countries require $450 billion of external resources over the next five years.

There have been suggestions that the rich countries should give their share of SDRs to the poorer countries. They do not require these resources and can borrow easily if necessary; besides, the strength of their currencies prevents them from getting into external debt-traps. The rich countries however insist that they should be paid an interest for doing so, even though the SDRs themselves, not being a loan but just an addition to foreign exchange reserves, do not carry any interest rates. The first absurdity of the SDR issue therefore arises from the very structure of the IMF: SDRs are distributed not according to need but according to the prevailing distribution of economic power (which underlies the quotas). Those who need it the most get the least, while those who need it the least get the most.

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