WASHINGTON, April 21 (KUNA) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced Friday that it has received additional commitments of about 40 billion Special Drawing Right (SDR) from nine members, bringing total commitments to about SDR 300 billion (USD 400 billion) from 35 members.
The Fund said in a statement that under these commitments, 20 borrowing agreements for a total of about SDR 211 billion are now effective with maximum terms through end-2020.
It affirmed that since the annual meetings in October 2016, "further progress has been made in securing commitments to provide bilateral borrowed resources under the IMF's 2016 borrowing framework." Commenting on this, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said "I am encouraged by the commitments received from the membership to provide bilateral resources under the new borrowing framework." She added that bilateral borrowing constitutes the Fund's "important third line of defense after quotas and the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB)." "These commitments will preserve the overall lending capacity of the IMF and provide confidence that the Fund will continue to be able to address the needs of our membership," she affirmed. (end) si.rk