The countries where Portuguese is the official language will receive almost 16.5 billion euros from the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) new allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDR), made official this Monday.
According to the document that was approved by the IMF's board of directors and that will begin this Monday to reinforce the foreign reserves of all the Fund's members, the sum of the amounts attributable to the nine Portuguese-speaking countries, including Portugal, reaches 16,492.5 billion euros, representing 13,623 million SDR units.
Brazil, the largest economy in Lusophone countries, will receive 12.7 billion euros, followed by Portugal, which will see its foreign reserves increase by 2.373 billion euros.
Angola is the Lusophone African country that will have the most robust allocation, followed by Mozambique, with 261 million euros, Equatorial Guinea (181.6 million), Guinea-Bissau, with 32.6 million, Cape Verde, with 27.8 million, and São Tomé and Príncipe, which will receive almost 17 million euros in foreign reserves.
In total, the Portuguese-speaking African Countries (PALOP) will receive a reinforcement of EUR 1,372.2 million, corresponding to 1,134 million DES units, while East Timor will receive EUR 29 million.
"The proposal advocates an allocation of $650 billion, about 456 billion SDRs, based on an assessment of member states' long-term reserve requirements, and includes measures to increase transparency and accountability in reporting the use of SDRs, while preserving the characteristics of SDRs," reads an IMF technical note on the issue, which will begin implementation this Monday.
The note goes on to read that "the allocation will help many member states smooth the need to adjust in the face of liquidity constraints and avoid unbalanced policies, while providing room for increased spending on crisis response and vaccines."
Developing countries and emerging markets will receive $275 billion (235 million euros) of the total, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Goergieva said on August 2 at the Fund's board approval of the issue.
Member countries began discussing a DES issue as early as last year due to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, which threw the global economy into a 3.5% recession and is expected to grow by 6% this year, according to forecasts made from the latest World Economic Outlook report.
The DES issue is an instrument created by the IMF to provide liquidity and expand the available resources of states with financial needs, acting as a kind of IMF capital increase to reinforce the fight against the pandemic and relaunch economic growth.
A DES is a unit in which the US dollar has 41.73% of the peso, the euro 30.93%, the Chinese yuan 10.92%, the Japanese yen 8.33%, and the British pound 8.09%, and has a daily quotation published by the IMF.
On Sunday, 1 DES equaled 1.2107 euros.
The DES issue will help the countries in greatest difficulty to balance their books and strengthen their commitment to fight the spread of the pandemic, and has been described by African countries as essential to revive economic growth in the region.
African countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, have argued that their share of SDRs is disproportionately lower than their needs due to the small IMF quota.
The IMF has argued that the more advanced countries, which are less in need of this 'capital injection', should transfer part of the strengthening of their SDRs to developing countries, and it has been agreed by the major powers to channel at least $100 billion, equivalent to about 854 million euros, to the countries with the most difficulties.
Lusa Agency