U.S. Treasury official says IMF SDR lending pledges reach about $58 billion

WASHINGTON – Pledges from wealthier International Monetary Fund members to lend IMF Special Drawing Rights reserves to poorer countries through two IMF trust funds have reached about $58 billion, U.S. Treasury acting international affairs undersecretary Andy Baukol said on Wednesday.

Baukol told a U.S. Senate foreign relations committee hearing that more than a dozen countries have made pledges, including G7 allies, Spain, the Netherlands, China, Saudi Arabia and Australia, to channel part of last year’s $650 billion SDR allocation to the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust for low-income countries and the new Resilience and Sustainability Trust.

(Reporting by David Lawder)