Special drawing rights (SDRs)
are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and
maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Not a currency,
SDRs instead represent a claim to currency held by IMF member countries
for which they may be exchanged. As they can only be exchanged for
euro’s, Japanese yen, pounds sterling, or US dollars, SDRs may actually
represent a potential claim on IMF member countries' nongold foreign
exchange reserve assets, which are usually held in those currencies.
While they may appear to have a far more important part to play, or,
perhaps, an important future role, being the unit of account for the IMF
has long been the main function of the SDR.
Created
in 1969 to supplement a shortfall of preferred foreign exchange reserve
assets, namely gold and the US dollar, the value of a SDR is defined by
a weighted currency basket of four major currencies: the US dollar, the
euro, the British pound, and the Japanese yen.[1] SDRs are denoted with
the ISO 4217 currency code XDR.
