IMF Support for COVID-19 Recovery

In a recent piece with my colleague Mark Plant, I highlighted the financial pressures facing the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT). The surge in PRGT lending during the pandemic and the continued high level of lending since then provided essential support to low-income countries (LICs)...

Many advanced-economy countries are looking for ways to recycle their excess Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) to support more vulnerable countries whose economies are being buffeted by the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The G20 has pledged $100 billion ...

The IMF’s new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) is now up and running, with the first countries receiving commitments of financial support. But if lending from the RST is to achieve its objectives, the IMF should take a radically different approach in applying conditions to the loans.

As the development community's attention turns increasingly to climate mitigation, adaptation, and loss and damage, special drawing rights (SDRs) are once again being bandied about as a potential financing source.

Months of innovative work by AfDB staff have resulted in an attractive SDR recycling scheme that overcomes a major hurdle by successfully embodying the reserve asset characteristic. And it will allow leveraging SDRs to multiply their lending power 3-4 times. Now politicians have to step up and commi...

At COP27 last November, the parties agreed to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters. Governments also agreed to establish a “transitional committee” to make recommendations on how to operationalize both the new funding arrangements and the fund at C...

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...