What Special Drawing Rights can do and what they cannot deliver

This article is the first in a series of articles in Executive Magazine’s upcoming “Financial Economy Special Report” prepared in collaboration with handpicked experts to cover key aspects of the current Lebanese economic, currency, and banking crisis. The report aims at achieving a common understanding of the policies and solutions that need to be implemented, while also allocating responsibility for past damages. On August 2, 2021, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the distribution of a new package of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) amounting to SDR 458 billion to all its member countries. Each country willing to participate has been allocated approximately its relative share in the quota system. The local media published the good news, and how the amount allocated to Lebanon, (estimated at SDR 605 million, which are equivalent to approximately USD 860 million), would be spent. Initial media reports neglected to mention previous cumulative distributions in favor