The Lebanese Ministry of Finance said on Monday that it will receive $1.135 billion next Thursday from the International Monetary Fund, at a time when the country is experiencing a shortage of foreign exchange.
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The National News Agency reported that “the Ministry of Finance informed the International Monetary Fund that it had received $1.135 billion on September 16, in exchange for Special Drawing Rights (SDR).”
And the amount expected to be transferred represents Lebanon’s share of the fund for 2021, and its value is 860 million dollars, and for the year 2009, its value is 275 million dollars, to be deposited in the account of the Banque du Liban.
The Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund approved in early August a general distribution of the equivalent of $650 billion.
This is from the SDR (456 billion units) to its members to support global liquidity.
A Special Drawing Right (SDR) is an international interest-bearing reserve asset created by the Fund in 1969 as a complement to other reserve assets of member countries.
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In 2009, the Fund implemented a similar move to support liquidity during the period of the global financial crisis in an attempt to revive economies.
Lebanon is suffering from a sharp collapse in the local currency exchange rates and a significant decline in the abundance of foreign money supply, due to which it has been unable to meet the country’s needs of imported basic commodities, especially fuel, medicine, and flour.
