Bulgaria Gets 136.289 Mln SDRs (148.7 Mln Euro) in Special IMF Allocation

The SDRs allocation is especially important for emerging market and low-income countries that have been hit hard by the global economic crisis. It is a key part of the IMF's response to the global crisis, offering significant support to its members in these difficult times, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn has said.

The allocation is provided under the Fourth Amendment of IMF Articles of Agreement in 1997 which envisages a one-time special allocation of 42.8 billion SDRs or some 46.7 billion euro to all IMF member states, BNB said in a statement.

The intent of the special allocation is to enable all members of the IMF to participate in the SDR system on an equitable basis and correct for the fact that countries that joined the Fund after 1981—more than one-fifth of the current IMF membership—have never received an SDR allocation, the IMF says on its website.

The Fourth Amendment became effective for all members on August 10, 2009 when the Fund certified that at least three-fifths of the IMF membership, or 112 members, with 85% of the total voting power accepted it. On August 5, 2009, the United States joined 133 other members in supporting the Amendment.

Last month, BNB received 474.59 million Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), or around 517 million euro, in general allocation from the IMF which was part of the general allocation of SDRs equivalent to $250 billion agreed at the Group of 20 summit in London in April and designed to provide liquidity to the global economy by supplementing the foreign exchange reserves of the IMF member states.

Members’ holdings of newly allocated SDRs, will count, as of the date of each of the general and special allocations, toward their reserve assets, the IMF has said. Some members may choose to sell part or all of their allocations to other members in exchange for hard currency—for example, to meet balance of payments needs—while other members may choose to buy more SDRs as a means of reallocating their reserves.

($ = 0.686 euro)