Rania Chakhtoura- Akhbar Al Yawm

One of the two sources suggested for  the financing card is the so-called “SDR” or Special Drawing Rights. It is an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund in 1969 (according to the first amendment of its founding agreement) to supplement the official assets of member countries.   

This procedure is due to member countries' concerns about the possibility of insufficient stock available at the time and the expected growth in international reserves to support the expansion of world trade.

The most important reserve holdings at the time were gold and the United States dollar, and members did not want world  to depend on gold reserves or dollars. This is why the SDR was introduced as an additional reserve asset that the IMF could periodically "allocate" to member countries when the need arose.

The value of this asset is also determined based on a basket of four major international currencies, and it can be traded for any currency of the four.

On what basis will this amount be donated to Lebanon?

Economist Walid Abu Suleiman explains to "Akhbar Al Yawm" that if this amount is approved, Lebanon will receive it through the payment of its annual contributions to the IMF, and thus it will receive an amount that has accumulated for years. He says: If we want to simplify things, it is similar to the end of service indemnity that the employee receives from the Social Security Fund , explaining that this amount is not a conditional loan and does not generate any interest, and does not require negotiations to obtain it, but rather the approval of the Board of Governors.

And how can Lebanon benefit from it?

Abu Suleiman believes that those concerned should improve its use, whether by funding the financing card, for a short period, or by creating a social safety net, especially with the low value of wages and high inflation rates, in coordination with the World Bank, so that commodity support is directed and not absolute. Or it is also possible to create a core to start investing in the electricity sector or projects that can generate income for the Lebanese treasury.

In this context, Abu Suleiman underlines the importance of monitoring the disbursement of this amount, because it is not allowed to waste the money, especially with the fear that it will go to finance the elections, and there are many experiences that have taken place previously in this context.