IMF has hit $100bn target of SDRs for vulnerable countries: Georgieva

PARIS: The International Monetary Fund has reached its target of making $100 billion in special drawing rights available for vulnerable countries, Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told a summit held in Paris on Thursday.

Rich countries agreed in 2021 to rechannel some of their unused IMF special drawing rights, an international reserve currency, to poor countries.

The plan was to make $100 billion available by lending the SDRS back to the IMF so that it could in turn lend the funds at below-market rates to low-income countries.

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“We have reached $100 billion on lending of SDRs. That was our target from 2021, we have achieved that target and 60 billion of those are already in the Fund working for countries,” Georgieva said on a panel.

Reaching the target was one of the main announcements at the Paris summit focused on how to help low-income countries cope with debt burdens while making more climate financing available.