(Adds details on size of Japan's SDR allocation)
By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - Japan has pledged to
double the percentage of International Monetary Fund Special
Drawing Rights monetary reserves that it will reallocate to
poorer countries to 40%, Japanese Finance Minister Shunichi
Suzuki said on Wednesday.
Suzuki told a news conference that he made the pledge to a
meeting of G7 finance ministers and central bank governors on
Wednesday. Previously, Japan had said it would channel 20% of
the SDRs it received in a 2021 general allocation to needier
countries via IMF trust funds.
In the $650 billion allocation aimed at helping IMF member
countries cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, Japan - the
second-largest IMF shareholder - received 29.5 billion SDRs,
worth about $39.7 billion at current exchange rates. A 40%
allocation would be valued at about $15.9 billion.
France had previously pledged the highest percentage of its
$26 billion SDR allocation, at 30%, to IMF trust funds,
including the new Resilience and Sustainability Trust.
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday
the new trust has about $40 billion in assets and there were 44
countries interested in borrowing from this trust for climate
and other needs.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Leslie Adler & Shri
Navaratnam)
david.lawder.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
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