Press Release No. 10/516

Press Release: IMF Determines New Currency Amounts for SDR Valuation Basket

December 30, 2010

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced today the revised amounts for the four currencies that determine the value of the Special Drawing Right (SDR). Effective January 1, 2011, the value of the SDR will be the sum of the values of the following amounts of each currency:

The decision on the amount of each currency in the SDR valuation basket is the final step implementing the results of the latest review of the method of valuation of the SDR (see Press Release No. 10/434). Previously, the IMF had determined that the composition of the SDR basket and the weights assigned to each currency would be 41.9 percent for the U.S. dollar, 37.4 percent for the euro, 11.3 percent for the pound sterling, and 9.4 percent for the Japanese yen. The precise amounts of each currency are determined so that the value of the new and existing SDR baskets are the same on the last working day, December 30, 2010, before the new basket comes into effect on January 1, 2011 (see SDR Valuation¹ and New SDR Basket²). The actual share of each currency in the valuation of the SDR on any particular day depends on the market values on that day of the fixed amounts of each currency in the basket.

The new SDR interest rate, which will be announced on January 7, 2011, and become effective on January 10, 2011, will reflect the new valuation basket as well as the exchange rates and interest rates that prevail at the time of each weekly determination of the interest rate on the SDR. A discrete change in the level of the SDR interest rate may be expected on January 10, 2011, reflecting the changes in the shares of currencies in the SDR valuation basket and the differences in the interest rates on each financial instrument in the basket.

¹ See http://www.imf.org/external/np/tre/sdr/basket.htm.
² See http://www.imf.org/external/np/tre/sdr/sdrbasket.htm.