What Are Special Drawing Rights (SDR)?
Special drawing rights (SDR) refer to an international type of monetary reserve currency created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 1969 that operates as a supplement to the existing money reserves of member countries. Created in response to concerns about the limitations of gold and dollars as the sole means of settling international accounts, SDRs augment international liquidity by supplementing the standard reserve currencies.
- Special drawing rights (SDR) are an artificial currency instrument created by the International Monetary Fund, which uses them for internal accounting purposes.
- The value of the SDR is calculated from a weighted basket of major currencies, including the U.S. dollar, the euro, Japanese yen, Chinese yuan, and British pound.
- The SDR interest rate (SDRi) provides the basis for calculating the interest rate charged to member countries when they borrow from the IMF and paid to members for their remunerated creditor positions in the IMF.
Understanding Special Drawing Rights (SDR)
An SDR is essentially an artificial currency instrument used by the IMF and is built from a basket of important national currencies. The IMF uses SDRs for internal accounting purposes. SDRs are allocated by the IMF to its member countries and are backed by the full faith and credit of the member countries' governments. The makeup of the SDR is re-evaluated every five years. The current makeup of the SDR is represented by the following table:
|Currency||Weights Determined in the 2015 Review||Fixed Number of Units of Currency for a 5-Year Period Starting Oct. 1, 2016|
The SDR was formed with a vision of becoming a major element of international reserves, with gold and reserve currencies forming a minor incremental component of such reserves. This consisted of central bank or government reserves of gold and globally accepted foreign currencies that could be used to buy the local currency in foreign exchange markets to maintain a stable exchange rate.
However, the international supply of the U.S. dollar and gold—the two main reserve assets—wasn’t sufficient to support growth in global trade and the related financial transactions that were taking place. This prompted member countries to form an international reserve asset under the guidance of the IMF.
In 1973, a few years after the SDR was created, the Bretton Woods system imploded, moving major currencies to the floating exchange rate system. In time, international capital markets expanded considerably, enabling creditworthy governments to borrow funds. This saw many governments register exponential growth in their international reserves. These developments diminished the stature of the SDR as a global reserve currency.
Besides acting as an auxiliary reserve asset, and though its stature has diminished, the SDR is the unit of account for the IMF. Its value, which is summed up in U.S. dollars, is calculated from a weighted basket of major currencies: the Japanese yen, the U.S. dollar, the Chinese yuan, the pound sterling, and the euro.
Requirements of Special Drawing Rights (SDR)
The current requirements to be included in the SDR were established in 2000.
The Board states that the SDR basket is to comprise of the currencies of "members or monetary unions whose exports had the largest value over a five-year period, and have been determined by the IMF to be freely usable."
"Freely usable," according to the IMF, is a currency that "(i) is, in fact, widely used to make payments for international transactions, and (ii) is widely traded in the principal exchange markets."
Determining what is "freely usable" is gauged on metrics such as the number of shares of the currency in reserve holdings, the currency denomination of international debt securities, the volume of transactions in foreign exchange markets, cross border payments, and trade finance.
Using the Concept of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to Settle Claims
The SDR isn’t regarded as a currency or a claim against the IMF assets. Instead, it is a prospective claim against the freely usable currencies that belong to the IMF member states. The Articles of Agreement of the IMF define a freely usable currency as one that is widely used in international transactions and is frequently traded in foreign exchange markets.
The IMF member states that hold SDRs can exchange them for freely usable currencies by either agreeing among themselves to voluntary swaps or by the IMF instructing countries with stronger economies or larger foreign currency reserves to buy SDRs from the less-endowed members. IMF member countries can borrow SDRs from its reserves at favorable interest rates, mostly to adjust their balance of payments to favorable positions.
The Special Drawing Rights (SDR) Interest Rate
The interest rate on SDRs, or the SDRi, provides the basis for calculating the interest rate that is charged to member countries when they borrow from the IMF and paid to members for their remunerated creditor positions in the IMF. It is also the interest paid to member countries on their own SDR holdings and charged on their SDR allocation.
The SDRi is determined weekly based on a weighted average of representative interest rates on short-term government debt instruments in the money markets of the SDR basket currencies, with a floor of five basis points. It is posted on the IMF website.
International Monetary Fund. "Special Drawing Rights (SDR)." Accessed Oct. 4, 2020.
International Monetary Fund. "Special Drawing Right (SDR) Allocations: What is an SDR?" Accessed Oct. 4, 2020.
International Monetary Fund. "The end of the Bretton Woods System (1972-1981)." Accessed Oct. 4, 2020.
International Monetary Fund. "Review of the Special Drawing Right (SDR) Currency Basket" Accessed Oct. 5, 2020.
International Monetary Fund. "Articles of Agreement," Page 73. Accessed Oct. 4, 2020.
International Monetary Fund. "Special Drawing Right (SDR) Allocations: What happens to the SDRs once they are allocated?" Accessed Oct. 4, 2020.
International Monetary Fund. "IMF Launches New SDR Basket Including Chinese Renminbi, Determines New Currency Amounts." Accessed Oct. 4, 2020.
International Monetary Fund. "SDR Valuation." Accessed Oct. 4, 2020.