IMF Special Drawing Rights

On August 23 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) performed the long desired payout of special drawing rights (SDRs) to the tune of 650 billion US dollars. Especially for countries of the Global South, the SDRs are a welcome cash injection. Unlike the EU and the USA with their economic recovery programs worth trillions, developing countries have so far only been able to mobilize few financial resources to cope with the impacts of the crisis, and for this reason too, they are lagging behind in vaccination campaigns for their people as well as in the sustainable restoration of their economies. The IMF measure therefore holds the potential to contribute to more just relations between the North and the South in the crisis. However, this only applies to a certain degree.