IMF makes $17.86 billion SDR allocation to India, says RBI

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has made an allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) equivalent to around $17.86 billion to India on August 23, the RBI said in a press release on September 1.

With this, the total SDR holdings of India now stands at equivalent to around $19.41 billion as on August 23, 2021, the RBI said.  This increase in SDR holdings will be reflected in the Foreign Exchange Reserves (FER) data that shall be published for the week ended August 27, 2021, the central bank said.

SDR holding is one of the components of the foreign exchange reserves of a country. The IMF makes the general SDR allocation to its members in proportion to their existing quotas in the Fund. The Board of Governors of the IMF had approved a general allocation of about SDR 456 billion on August 2, 2021, effective from August 23, 2021, of which the share of India is SDR 12.57 billion.

The country's foreign exchange reserves declined by $2.47 billion to reach $616.895 billion in the week ended August 20, RBI data showed last Friday.

In the previous week ended August 13, 2021, the reserves had declined by $2.099 billion to $619.365 billion. The forex kitty had touched a lifetime high of $621.464 billion in the week ended August 6, 2021.

Expressed in dollar terms, the foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
The special drawing rights (SDRs) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dipped by $3 million at $1.541 billion.