Introduction of special drawing rights

Special drawing rights are an international reserve asset created by the International Monetary Fund to supplement the official reserves of its member countries. They were introduced in the late 1960s under the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates, when there were worries that the supply of gold and dollars would not be enough to support growing world trade. Rights are allocated to members in proportion to their quotas and can be exchanged for freely usable currencies. Their value is based on a basket of major currencies, which today includes the US dollar, euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen and British pound. They are not a currency used by the public, but they serve as the IMF's unit of account.

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