Yale School of Management

Posts by IMF

The G20’s impasse on Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

August 11, 2020
Policymakers have spent four months calling for the G20 to support a new allocation or a reallocation of special drawing rights (SDRs) at the IMF. An SDR allocation would help bolster the reserves of the world’s countries. Nevertheless, the G20’s latest July communique, much like the last one in mid-April 2020, barely mentioned the SDR. The only reference to an SDR allocation or reallocation in the communique was an admission that the G20 had indeed discussed it, but could not find a consensus on the issue. The U.S. blocked an allocation and is also blocking efforts to allow rich countries to donate their SDRs to those in need. Continue reading “The G20’s impasse on Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)”

Who's afraid of some (not so big or bad) debt relief?

July 24, 2020
By early July 2020, top officials at the IMF and World Bank admitted that the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), the  G20’s debt relief program faced challenges. They hoped to make some progress at the mid-July G20 meetings, but the July G20 meetings came and went without major action on the program. Considering that the DSSI was supposed to be one of the international community’s marquee responses to the most severe instance of capital flight from developing economies in recent memory, it is important for billions of people that they get the program right.  Continue reading “Who's afraid of some (not so big or bad) debt relief?”

EU Programs Supporting non-EU Countries

May 13, 2020
On April 22, the European Commission approved a €3 billion macro-financial assistance (MFA) program to ten neighboring countries outside the European Union for a period of one year to help them cover their immediate financing needs. Like the €20 billion Team Europe strategy announced earlier, this helps demonstrate the EU’s solidarity with other countries in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading “EU Programs Supporting non-EU Countries”

Multinational Organizations’ Efforts to Assist Countries through COVID-19 crisis

May 6, 2020
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and other multinational organizations have announced plans to make hundreds of billions of dollars available to emerging markets in response to the COVID-19 crisis. But their own experts have said these funds will probably be insufficient, and they have collectively released only a small fraction of that amount so far. Continue reading “Multinational Organizations’ Efforts to Assist Countries through COVID-19 crisis”

The IMF Expands and Expedites Lending in Response to the COVID-19 crisis

April 22, 2020
Since March, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expanded existing lending programs and introduced new ones to help countries bear the costs of the COVID-19 crisis. As of April 21, it had approved a total of $8.7 billion in emergency financing for over 40 member countries, of the more than 100 countries that have requested assistance. (See the updated list here). Continue reading “The IMF Expands and Expedites Lending in Response to the COVID-19 crisis”

The IMF makes funds available in response to the COVID-19 crisis

April 8, 2020
On March 27, IMF’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva revealed that over 80 countries had requested emergency financing from the IMF. The IMF expects the financial needs of emerging markets will be at least $2.5 trillion, and many of these countries already face significant burdens of debt. About 50 of the requests came from low-income countries and over 30 from middle-income countries. Emerging markets have seen an $83 billion capital outflow, shortages in foreign exchange liquidity, and declines in commodity prices. The IMF aims to expand its emergency financing capacity under its existing facilities and is considering the launch of a new short‑term liquidity swap line. Continue reading “The IMF makes funds available in response to the COVID-19 crisis”