Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) Pledges Linked to the Distribution of the Remaining SDR 1,750 Million Windfall Profits from Gold Sales

Last Updated: May 7, 2013

As part of a strategy aimed at making its low-income lending sustainable over the longer term, the IMF decided in September 2012 to distribute to the membership in proportion to their quota shares SDR 1,750 million (about US$2.7 billion) of reserves attributed to the remaining profits from its 2009-2010 gold sales program. The resources are in addition to SDR 700 million (US$1.1 billion) that have already been approved in a similar but separate operation to support low income countries during the global financial crisis. This decision means that all of the windfall profits earned from gold sales have been proposed for indirect use in boosting the IMF’s ability to support low-income countries. The distribution will be effected only when members provide satisfactory assurances that they will make new concessional lending subsidy contributions equivalent to at least 90 percent of the amount distributed—i.e. SDR 1,575 million (about US$2.43 million).

As of May 7, 2013, 94 countries representing 75.04 percent of the proposed distribution had pledged to use their portion of the distribution to subsidize lending to low-income countries, which may currently borrow at zero interest from the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT), the IMF’s concessional lending vehicle.

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