Trinidad and Tobago’s net foreign reserves have gotten a boost and now stand over US$7 billion.

The country’s foreign reserves have just been boosted by the equivalent of US$644 million, as a result of a global distribution by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) designed to help countries cope with the forex demands as a result of COVID-19.

“The US$644M in additional SDRs from the IMF gives the Government more flexibility to inject USD into the commercial banking sector for distribution to the public and to make more Forex available through the Exim Bank to the manufacturing sector and to importers of essential goods,” Finance Minister, Colm Imbert tweeted.

He reiterated that Jamaica’s Net Foreign Reserves are now back over US$7 billion noting that, “the US$644M in additional SDRs from the IMF gives the Government more flexibility to inject USD into the commercial banking sector for distribution to the public and to make more Forex available through the Exim Bank to the manufacturing sector and to importers of essential goods.”

On August 2, the IMF approved a general allocation of SDRs equivalent to US$650 billion (about SDR 456 billion) to boost global liquidity. The newly created SDRs will be credited to IMF member countries in proportion to their existing quotas in the Fund.

About US$275 billion (about SDR 193 billion) of the new allocation will go to emerging markets and developing countries, including low-income countries such as Trinidad and its Caribbean neighbours.