IMF Executive Board Concludes the 2024 Comprehensive Review of General Resources Account Access Limits

IMF News, December 23, 2024

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Published: December 23, 2024

Key decision

The Executive Board concluded the Comprehensive Review of the General Resources Account (GRA) Access Limits.
The decision maintains the overall annual and cumulative GRA access limits at 200 and 600 percent of current quotas, respectively.
These limits are unchanged from the current temporary limits set to expire at the end of 2024.
Press Release No. 24/499
Washington, DC - December 17, 2024

Rationale and considerations

The decision considered erosion, evolving global conditions, available Fund resources, and necessary safeguards, among other factors.
The maintained limits constitute a 38 percent increase relative to the limits set in the February 2016 review.
The Board noted the need to continue meeting evolving needs of member countries, providing greater stability and predictability in access to IMF resources.
The last comprehensive review in February 2016 established an annual limit of 145 percent and a cumulative limit of 435 percent of quotas; limits were adjusted temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic and after geopolitical conflicts.

Numerical adjustments and technical approach

Overall annual GRA access limit: 200 percent of current quotas.
Overall cumulative GRA access limit: 600 percent of current quotas.
The Board adopted decisions to ensure that the nominal special drawing rights (SDR) value of:
- the overall GRA access limits,
- instrument-specific limits,
- other quota-based thresholds, and
- the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) quota-based limits

will be maintained once the general conditions for the effectiveness of the quota increase under the 16th General Review of Quotas (GRQ) are met.

When those conditions are met, limits and thresholds expressed in percent of quota will be reduced by one-third (or divided by 1.5), with some being rounded up, following the approach endorsed in the Review of Charges and the Surcharge Policy and the Review of PRGT Facilities and Financing.
The approach aims to ensure stability of access limits, clarity for Fund-supported programs, and simplicity and consistency within the Fund’s lending toolkit.
The current temporary overall access limits were approved in March 2023, extended in March 2024, and set to expire at end-2024.

Executive Board assessment and views of Directors

Directors welcomed the Comprehensive Review and emphasized that access limits are a key element of the Fund’s risk management framework, providing members with confidence about the possible scale of financing while safeguarding Fund resources and preserving their revolving character.
Access in individual financing requests is determined by rigorous assessments informed by standard access criteria, including:
- balance of payments need,
- the strength of the member’s program,
- capacity to repay the Fund,
- outstanding credit to the Fund.
Directors noted that overall GRA access limits are not ceilings but thresholds for enhanced scrutiny and safeguards.
Directors broadly supported setting overall GRA annual and cumulative access limits at 200 and 600 percent of current quotas, respectively, and keeping other access limits and quota-based thresholds largely unchanged.
Most Directors considered the proposed overall access limits to strike an appropriate balance between offsetting a significant portion of the erosion vis à vis macroeconomic aggregates since 2016 and maintaining risk mitigation safeguards.
A number of Directors preferred higher overall GRA access limits to fully compensate for the erosion.
Directors broadly supported the automatic adjustment mechanism tied to the 16th GRQ effectiveness conditions, agreeing that limits and thresholds will be divided by 1.5, with some being rounded up.
Many Directors raised concerns about the risk of a prolonged delay in meeting the conditions for the effectiveness of the 16th GRQ, which could exacerbate erosion of access limits in real terms; some recommended taking corrective action should such a delay materialize.
Directors agreed the next Comprehensive Review of GRA Access Limits should take place on the standard five-year review cycle, with flexibility to conduct it earlier if circumstances warrant.

Institutional and procedural notes

The decision aligns with recent Board actions in the Review of Charges and the Surcharge Policy and the Review of PRGT Facilities and Financing.
The Board’s summary of Directors’ views was transmitted in the Executive Board Assessment.
[1] At the conclusion of the discussion, the Managing Director, as Chair of the Board, summarizes the views of Executive Directors, and this summary is transmitted to the country's authorities. An explanation of any qualifiers used in summings up can be found here: http://www.IMF.org/external/np/sec/misc/qualifiers.htm.

Source: IMF Communications Department — "IMF Executive Board Concludes the 2024 Comprehensive Review of General Resources Account Access Limits" (Press Release No. 24/499), December 23, 2024.