Press Release No. 09/479

Press Release: IMF Executive Board Completes Midyear Review of Fund's Income Position

December 23, 2009

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed its midyear review of the Fund's income position for the financial year ending April 30, 2010 (FY 2010).

The updated outlook for FY 2010 net operational income is SDR 440 million (about US$688 million), compared with SDR 290 million (about US$453 million) envisaged at the beginning of the financial year. The Fund's income outlook for FY 2010 has improved mainly as a result of higher projected lending income and lower expenditures in SDR terms, which in part reflect current higher U.S. dollar/SDR exchange rates. The actual outcome remains subject to considerable uncertainty related to the timing and amounts of disbursements under current arrangements with member countries, as well as potential new arrangements and the performance of the Investment Account.

Following the Executive Board’s decision in September 2009 to commence gold sales in a volume strictly limited to 403.3 metric tons to finance the Fund’s new income model and to boost concessional lending capacity (see Press Release No. 09/310), 212 metric tons were sold in October and November (see Press Releases Nos. 09/381, 09/413 and 09/431). The gold sales have yielded profits of about SDR 3 billion (about US$4.7 billion). A central element of the new income model involves the investment of the gold profits in an endowment to generate income on a sustainable long-term basis. The new income model, which includes a broadening of the Fund’s investment authority, was approved by the Board of Governors in 2008 (see Press Release No. 08/74) and the final approval process by member countries’ domestic legislatures remains in progress.

In completing the midyear review, the Executive Board decided to leave the rate of charge—the interest rate the IMF charges member countries for non-concessional IMF credit—unchanged at 100 basis points above the SDR interest rate for FY 2010. The midyear review is available online at http://www.imf.org/external/np/pp/eng/2009/120709.pdf.