IMF is sending $1.1 billion
to bolster foreign reserves

Calls for transparency and accountability

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) was notified by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that, on September 16, Lebanon will receive its allocated IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) equivalent to $1.1 billion.

The funds will be deposited with the Central Bank (BDL). They consist of $860 million from 2021 and $275 million from 2009.

The MoF said that it had asked the IMF to transfer the SDRs allocated to Lebanon especially those of 2009.

Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF, had said during the ‘International Conference in Support of the Population of Lebanon’ held last August: “For Lebanon, this is not trivial. Lebanon would receive about $860 million of SDRs at this critical moment to strengthen the country’s depleted reserves and also to help with the many urgent needs of the Lebanese people.”

BDL’s liquid foreign exchange reserves are estimated to have dropped to around $14 billion at the end of August.

Georgieva had said that the way SDRs are used is a sovereign decision and that international and domestic partners of the IMF are called upon to help ensure the transparency and accountability of the deployment of the SDR allocation.