Press Release No. 97/43

Press Release: IMF Executive Board Agrees SDR Allocation Proposal

September 20, 1997

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reached agreement on a proposal to amend the Articles of Agreement that will enable all members to receive an equitable share of cumulative SDR allocations. The proposed amendment will be communicated to the Chairman of the Board of Governors and submitted for approval by the Board of Governors at its 1997 Annual Meeting in Hong Kong, China. If approved, the proposed amendment then will need to be submitted to all members of the IMF for their acceptance. The proposed amendment will become effective when three-fifths of the members, having 85 percent of the total voting power, have accepted it.

The proposed amendment provides for a special one-time allocation of SDRs so as to equalize members’ ratios of cumulative allocations to their Ninth Review quotas at approximately 29.32 percent. This allocation of SDR 21.4 billion will result in a doubling of SDRs already allocated, to a total of SDR42.9 billion.