The past year was tumultuous for SDRs, but we’ve now managed to decipher the annual report and extract the must-knows to help you have a more enjoyable experience when you read it! The report covers the first year after the historic allocation of SDR 456 billion ($650 billion) in August 2021 and pro...

More than a year after the IMF general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) and the G20 promise to recycle $100 billion of SDRs, how much has been achieved? And how will the recycled SDRs be used? 

Ukraine’s dire financing situation is front and center in the debate over how the world will weather the war being waged by Russia. The IMF will play an important role in extending credit to Ukraine directly, but the institution is also being used a conduit for other countries’ assistance. In this b...

This blog post argues that higher health spending is unlikely to be sustained because of the pandemic’s adverse impact on revenues, other spending pressures, and the resulting deteriorating fiscal position of LLMICs. This suggests that countries will need to undertake policy actions to create additi...

As international support for Ukraine ramps up, IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) are being brought into the mix. European Council president Charles Michel supported the Ukrainian Minister of Finance’s call to reallocate ten percent of unused SDRs to Ukraine. But it is unclear what this ten percent ...

Just as the human body needs blood and a car needs oil, the world’s economy needs US dollars to support global trade and the international financial system. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, central banks have been charged with the “simple” task of keeping economies afloat by containing inflati...

With Russia’s attack on Ukraine raging and most of the world imposing severe financial sanctions on Russia, attention has turned to whether Russia could use its allocation of special drawing rights to bolster its foreign reserves and finance its war effort. The answer is yes, in principle, but ...

Tracking the movements of IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) can be confusing and challenging. In an effort to increase transparency around SDR transactions, the IMF released its Annual Update on SDR Trading Operations. Most of the report focuses on Voluntary Trade Arrangements, a backbone of the SDR...