this were created by the IMF in 1969 as a type of reserve assets to supplement international reserves of gold & national currencies for setting balance of payment accounts. today, teh SDR is the IMFs main reserve asset, & is held by member-countries of the IMF as part of their international reserves. a member may use their special account to obtain needed foreign currency from another member. SDR is not a real money & has no gold backing. unlike gold & foreign exchange, it doest not have tangible life of its own. it is created by IMF itself, & takes the form of book-keeping entries in a special account managed by the fund.
- it is valued in terms of 5 currencies:
- US Dollar
- German Deutsche marc
- UK sterling
- French Franc
- Japanese Yen
