Allocative Inefficiency of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs): Issues and Challenges of International Political Economy

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hitesh Kumar BThakkar

When the global monetary system faced the problem of inadequate supply of gold reserves, it led to the emergence of new paper gold in the form of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). SDRs are used by member nations of IMF for a wide variety of transactions on IMF’s Operations Division and Administered Accounts in proportion to their quotas. Lately, the IMF has been subjected to extensive criticism on issues of recent allocation of SDRs and the related weighted voting rights. At present, the SDRs measurement is based on weighted average and a significant size of SDRs quota is allocated to developed countries due to their higher weight ratio. The SDRs quota allocated to developing and least developed countries is insufficient because they possess low weight ratio and low value. Further, the IMF does not follow the universal membership in which one country get one vote right; these allocated SDRs reflect the voting power of member nations. If a few countries with high SDRs collude with one another, it can lead to a decision favouring these countries due to a high percentage of voting rights with them. This could also result in these countries having their own representatives in the highest decision-making body, i.e. Board of Governors. This paper argues that the method of quota allocation needs to be reworked for better allocative efficiency purpose, to achieve a progressive and inclusive international economic order.

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Gallagher ◽  
José Antonio Ocampo ◽  
Ulrich Volz

AbstractA major issuance of special drawing rights (SDRs) through the International Monetary Fund would be a key tool to provide financial support to developing and emerging economies and limit the economic and financial fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. SDRs are an unconditional resource, and the case for such an allocation is very strong during an exogenous shock, such as the current one. An SDR allocation would enhance the international liquidity in the hands of emerging and developing countries, so that public responses to the health crisis are not imperilled by financial crises. Close to two-fifths of a new SDR allocation would directly go to developing and emerging economies. In addition, a new mechanism should be created through which countries that do not need their SDR allocation lend them to the IMF, to increase the Fund’s lending capacity. Developed countries can also allocate the SDRs they do not use for official development assistance.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  

This volume sets out the IMF’s By-Laws, which are adopted under the authority of, and are intended to be complementary to, the IMF’s Articles of Agreement, which are considered to prevail in the event of any conflict. The By-Laws cover a number of topics, including the size and composition of the IMF’s Board of Governors and Executive Board, applications for IMF membership, IMF quotas, voting rights, staff regulations, and the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights.


Economies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candice Branchoux ◽  
Lin Fang ◽  
Yusuke Tateno

To assist with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, this paper develops a framework to estimate infrastructure financing needs of the Asia-Pacific least developed countries (LDCs), landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), and small island developing States (SIDS) by 2030. The framework takes into account the financing required to close existing infrastructure gaps, keep up with growing demands for new infrastructure, maintain existing infrastructure, and mitigate the vulnerability of infrastructure to climate-related risks. Based on a panel of 71 developing economies from 1990 to 2015 and the application of unit costs to the level of physical infrastructure stock projected to 2030, the required resources are estimated to amount to 8.1% of GDP per annum on weighted average, which exceeds current levels of infrastructure funding of 5–7% of GDP. The paper finds that a large proportion of financing needs in LDCs and SIDS arises from the current infrastructure shortages, particularly in the transport and energy sector, implying that provision of universal access to basic infrastructure services would require large outlays of resources. The results also suggest that LLDCs and some SIDS require over one-third of their spending to be allocated to maintenance and replacement of existing assets, while those in low-lying coastal areas face substantial long-run costs in improving infrastructure to mitigate climate change and protect them against loss and damages caused by extreme weather events. Meeting future infrastructure financing needs will require greater engagement of the private sector and other global and regional initiatives to ensure that sufficient resources can be raised for investment in infrastructure.


Significance The announcement provoked panic among some bondholders but their concerns appear unfounded given Ethiopia's overall debt sustainability and the government's ability to engage with Chinese lenders on favourable terms. Impacts Other African governments will follow Ethiopia's progress before requesting debt restructuring. Ratings agencies may need to tweak their methodologies to account for such relief, lest they needlessly downgrade proactive sovereigns. Pressure on Chinese lenders may rekindle Beijing's calls for the IMF to issue new Special Drawing Rights to boost international liquidity.


2013 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cécile Renaud ◽  
Jacques Berger ◽  
Arnaud Laillou ◽  
Sylvie Avallone

Vitamin A deficiency is still one of the major public health problems in least developed countries. Fortification of vegetable oils is a strategy implemented worldwide to prevent this deficiency. For a fortification program to be effective, regular monitoring is necessary to control food quality in the producing units. The reference methods for vitamin A quantification are expensive and time-consuming. A rapid method should be useful for regular assessment of vitamin A in the oil industry. A portable device was compared to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for three plant oils (rapeseed, groundnut, and soya). The device presented a good linearity from 3 to 30 mg retinol equivalents per kg (mg RE.kg- 1). Its limits of detection and quantification were 3 mg RE.kg- 1 for groundnut and rapeseed oils and 4 mg RE.kg- 1 for soya oil. The intra-assay precision ranged from 1.48 % to 3.98 %, considered satisfactory. Accuracy estimated by the root mean squares error ranged from 3.99 to 5.49 and revealed a lower precision than HPLC (0.4 to 2.25). Although it offers less precision than HPLC, the device estimates quickly the vitamin A content of the tested oils from 3 or 4 to 15 mg RE.kg- 1.


2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
JAVED ALAM SHEIKH

Almost 50 per cent of the world population is constituted by the women and they have been making substantial contribution to socio-economic development. But, unfortunately their tremendous contribution remains unrecognized and unnoticed in most of the developing and least developed countries causing the problem of poverty among them. Empowering women has become the key element in the development of an economy. With women moving forward, the family moves, the village moves and the nation moves. Hence, improving the status of women by way of their economic empowerment is highly called for. Entrepreneurship is a key tool for the economic empowerment of women around the world for alleviating poverty. Entrepreneurship is now widely recognized as a tool of economic development in India also. In this paper I have tried to discuss the reasons and role of Women Entrepreneurship with the help of Push and Pull factors. In the last I have also discussed the problems and the road map of Women Entrepreneurs development in India.


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