The IMF won’t let Venezuela access its share of new SDRs

Venezuela isn’t able to access its existing SDR holdings and won’t be able to use new ones until a government gains official recognition, an IMF spokesman told Bloomberg News.

The International Monetary Fund won’t hand over $5 billion of special drawing rights to Venezuela to bolster its reserves as part of a massive injection of resources to member nations, due to an ongoing dispute over whether President Nicolas Maduro is the legitimate leader of the country. Venezuela in theory would be among the biggest recipients in terms of percentage of gross domestic product of a proposed $650 billion in special drawing rights that the IMF is planning to give countries to boost global liquidity. This is part of an effort to help emerging and low-income nations deal with mounting debt and Covid-19. Some Republicans in Congress, including Senators Pat Toomey and John Kennedy, have urged U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to oppose the creation of the reserves, saying they would reward Maduro, among other U.S. adversaries.