The announcement last Friday that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) executive board approved an allocation of $650 billion worth of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) is a “much-needed step in the right direction,” Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) Co-Director Mark Weisbrot said, “but more will be needed, and IMF member countries should aim at ultimately allocating trillions in SDRs, that most of the US Congress has supported, to meet the scale of the challenges that countries continue to face as a result of the pandemic.” With expected approval by the IMF’s board of governors, these special reserve assets could be distributed to countries around the world by the end of August.
“This is a historic victory,” Weisbrot said. “With this issuance and distribution of reserve assets, the IMF is playing an important role that many of its founders envisioned when it was founded 77 years ago, helping to…