Gallagher & Merling Argue for Issuance of Additional IMF SDRs
Kevin Gallagher, Interim Dean of Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Professor of Global Development Policy, and Director of the Global Development Policy Center (GDP Center), has published an op-ed in The Hill arguing for the new issuance of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), the special reserve asset of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Gallagher co-authored the op-ed, titled “To avert a global debt crisis, IMF’s reserve assets need greater support,” with Lara Merling, a senior policy advisor at the GDP Center and the Task Force on Climate, Development, and the International Monetary Fund. While inflation and escalating prices on commercial goods are hurting Americans, the authors make clear that it is far worse for poorer countries as they have to decide between essential goods – food, fuels, medicine, etc. – and making payments to international creditors. Gallagher and Merling argue that the issuance of additional SDRs will not only help struggling countries repay debts and prevent financial instability overseas, but it would come at little to no cost to the United States.
An excerpt:
Instead of making policymakers in poor countries feel that the U.S. has forgotten them, the U.S. can take the lead and pave the way for a new SDR allocation that ensures these countries quickly receive $210 billion worth of support. Not doing so is a missed opportunity to show that multilateralism can still deliver.
The full op-ed can be read on The Hill‘s website.
Kevin Gallagher is a professor of global development policy at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, where he directs the Global Development Policy Center. He is the author or co-author of numerous books, including most recently, The Case for a New Bretton Woods (Wiley, 2022). Read more about Professor Gallagher on his Pardee School faculty profile.