IMF chief says ‘confident‘ to distribute new SDR by mid-August

WASHINGTON -- International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva has said that she is "confident" the IMF will distribute a new allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to member countries by mid-August.

"It is a remarkable demonstration of multilateralism" that the IMF membership has agreed to support a new SDR allocation of 650 billion US dollars, the largest in the history of the IMF, Georgieva said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua on Tuesday.

"In comparison, in the midst of the global financial crisis, the membership allocated 250 billion dollars to help countries deal with the consequences of this crisis," she said.

Georgieva said she has committed by the end of June to make a proposal on the new SDR allocation to the IMF board of directors. Once the proposal is approved, it will be submitted to the IMF board of governors for a final vote.

"Given that we all are under pressure to act for the exit from the crisis, I am confident that sometime in summer, by mid-August, the new allocation will be distributed to our membership," she said.