Operations and transactions in SDRs : first basic period

In the course of 1968 and 1969, when the outline of a facility for special drawing rights in the International Monetary Fund, which had been agreed in Rio de Janeiro in 1967, was being transformed into an amendment of the Articles of Agreement of the Fund, many observers were uncertain whether SDRS would become a truly ac ceptable supplement to international reserves and whether they would be able to coexist in practice with gold and reserve curren cies. Now, after more than three years of operating experience, it has become generally accepted that SDRS can play an effective role in settling payments imbalances among participating countries. There is also now a considerable body of opinion that SDRS could and should be developed into the principal international reserve asset of a reformed international monetary system and that they might become the standard of value for currencies. It is also widely felt that a greater role for SDRs would make it possible to improve the international management of the volume and the composition of international reserves.