Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much and what proportion of the loan of Special Drawing Rights to the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust will be designated as Official Development Assistance.

The UK’s recent pledge of an additional SDR 1bn to the IMF’s Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) will provide valuable financial support to the poorest and the most vulnerable countries.

The UK’s loan to the PRGT will count towards the UK’s annual ODA spending plans when drawn down over time, in line with international rules. In recent years drawdowns of the UK’s SDR loan to the PRGT have scored around 30% ODA.

Departmental ODA budgets will be increasing significantly over the Spending Review period, from the £10 billion that was allocated in 2020 to at least £12.3 billion by 2024-2025. The ODA scored through SDR channeling is additional to these growing departmental budgets and will not require cuts to existing programming.