I’ve taken pride over the years in CGD’s success as a think-and-do tank in coming up with new “products” (outcomes of think/research) and working with officials around the world to see them adopted and implemented (outcomes of do/outreach and advocacy)). New products that change people’s lives in go...

Ukraine’s dire financing situation is front and center in the debate over how the world will weather the war being waged by Russia. The IMF will play an important role in extending credit to Ukraine directly, but the institution is also being used a conduit for other countries’ assistance. In this b...

As international support for Ukraine ramps up, IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) are being brought into the mix. European Council president Charles Michel supported the Ukrainian Minister of Finance’s call to reallocate ten percent of unused SDRs to Ukraine. But it is unclear what this ten percent ...

After the IMF’s August 2021 allocation of $650 billion worth of special drawing rights (SDRs), the G20 pledged to recycle $100 billion worth of that allocation from high-income countries to middle- and low-income countries. These recycled SDRs—not needed by advanced economies—would help lower-income...

Just as the human body needs blood and a car needs oil, the world’s economy needs US dollars to support global trade and the international financial system. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, central banks have been charged with the “simple” task of keeping economies afloat by containing inflati...

We focus on the implications of the new IMF RST’s financial structure for contributors and borrowers.

This blog post is based in part on a presentation delivered by Nancy Birdsall on March 19th, 2022 as part of the MIT Seminar XXI program, hosted by Kenneth Oye.