Lebanon to receive $1.13 billion from IMF

BEIRUT, Lebanon

Lebanon will receive $1.3 billion from the IMF on Sept. 16, the country’s finance ministry said on Monday.

A ministry statement said that allocation will be in the IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).

The amount is comprised of $860 million from 2021 and $275 million from 2009, the statement said.

In August, the IMF Board of Governors agreed to distribute a general allocation of SDRs equivalent to $650 billion to the IMF members to address their needs of reserves and to foster stability of the global economy.

The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by IMF in 1969, to supplement its member countries' official reserves.

The last IMF's SDRs distribution was in 2009 where member countries received $250 billion in SDR reserves to help ease global financial crisis.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been grappling with some of the severest domestic challenges, including currency devaluation which lost almost all of its value against the dollar, along with shortages of fuel and medicines.

Writing by Ahmed Asmar