Issuance of IMF’s own currency on the cards

Issuance of IMF’s own currency on the cards

WASHINGTON/LONDON: Some Group of Seven (G7) countries are keen to back a new issuance of the International Monetary Fund's own currency, known as special drawing rights (SDRs), to help low-income countries hit by the coronavirus crisis, a step last taken in 2009. Officials from the US, the IMF's biggest shareholder, had signaled they were open to a new issuance of $500 billion, sources said “” another Biden shift away from Trump administration opposition. US President Joe Biden's administration told allies on Friday in a virtual meeting, chaired by Britain, that it was re-engaging with them to help steer the global economy out of its worst slump since the Great Depression, a contrast with the go-it-alone approach of Donald Trump. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for continued fiscal support to secure the recovery, saying "the time to go big is now." Yellen told her peers from the G7 rich democracies that Washington was committed to multilateralism and "places a high priority on deepening our international engagement and strengthening our alliances." A G7 source, who asked not to be named, said the US told other countries it needed a few weeks to finalize the SDR increase. The move is politically tricky