Economics
Fragile Nations Burn Through IMF Lifelines for Support
- Rechanneling SDRs yet to deliver, progressive think tank says
- CEPR sees growing effort for SDR issuance beyond $650 billion
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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The world’s most financially fragile countries have burned through the extra International Monetary Fund reserves they got last year, raising calls for a fresh injection to help them weather higher interest rates, food and fuel costs.
The IMF’s record $650 billion issuance of reserve assets known as special drawing rights, or SDRs, last August “was badly needed,” and has been almost exclusively used by low- and middle-income countries, the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank, said in a report Wednesday. Greece was the only nation classified as an advanced economy to use SDRs, allocating them to debt relief for crisis-era loans.