SPECIAL DRAWING RIGHT REVIEW
IMF Work Progresses on 2015 SDR Basket Review
August 4, 2015
The SDR’s value is currently based on a basket composed of the U.S. dollar, the euro,
the pound sterling and the Japanese yen. The IMF reviews the SDR basket valuation
method every five years to ensure that it reflects the relative importance of major
currencies in the world’s trading and financial systems, with the aim of enhancing
the attractiveness of the SDR as a reserve asset.
In an interview, Siddharth Tiwari, Director of the IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review
Department, discusses the details of the SDR review process.
IMF Survey: What will be the main focus of the review?
Tiwari:
The Chinese renminbi (RMB) is the only currency not currently in the SDR basket that
meets the export criterion. Therefore, a key focus of the current review will be
whether the RMB also meets the freely usable criterion in order to be included in the
SDR basket.
The staff paper that was discussed by the Executive Directors provides some building
blocks to help inform a future decision by the Board. In addition to these issues,
the review will also cover the methodology used to determine the currency weights in
the SDR basket and a review of the instruments in the SDR interest rate basket.
IMF Survey: Why is staff proposing an extension of the current SDR basket?
Tiwari:
To put this in context, the current SDR basket expires at the end of this year. We are
proposing extending the current SDR basket by nine months until September 30, 2016.
This is in response to feedback from SDR users on the desirability of avoiding changes
in the basket at the end of the calendar year and facilitating continued smooth
functioning of SDR-related operations. An extension of nine months would also allow
users to adjust to a potential changed basket composition should the Executive Board
decide to include the RMB.
The proposed extension, which will be decided by the Executive Board later this month,
would not in any way prejudge the timing of conclusion or outcome of the review.
Former comfort woman tells her story, 70 years on
3 August 2015 Last updated at 23:51 BST
Seventy years after the end of World War Two, revisionism in Japan is growing
stronger and becoming more mainstream.
Some are denying that Japan committed war atrocities, including forcing women
in China, South Korea and South East Asia to be comfort women, or sex slaves
for Japanese soldiers.
Former comfort woman Lee Ok Seon tells the BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes her story.
South Korea's comfort women struggle to be heard
3 August 2015 Last updated at 23:52 BST
Seventy years after the end of World War Two, revisionism in Japan is growing
stronger and becoming more mainstream.
Some are denying that Japan committed war atrocities, including forcing women
in China, South Korea and South East Asia to be sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports on why some in Japan continue to deny
the existence of the so-called comfort women.
Read more: Japan revisionists deny WW2 sex slave atrocities
Japan revisionists deny WW2 sex slave atrocities
By Rupert Wingfield-Hayes
BBC News
3 August 2015
◆'We were kidnapped'
Lee Ok Seon is a tiny 88-year-old with thick white curly hair and badly-fitting
false teeth. She chuckles as I try to cajole her to speak to me in Chinese.
Ms Lee spent 65 years in China, and only returned to South Korea 15 years ago.
She was born in the port city of Busan on the southern tip of modern day South
Korea. Her family was poor and she was sent out to work at the age of 14.
"I had to start work as a housekeeper for another family at a young age. It was
at that time I was out on the street one day… that's how I got kidnapped,"
she says. She said two men grabbed her and put her on a train.
"By the time we arrived I realised we had crossed the border into China. I was
sent to a place where there were already several comfort women.
"I wonder why they called us comfort women. We didn't go by our own accord,
we were kidnapped. I was forced to have sex with many men each day."
Ms Lee spent three years in the brothel close to a Japanese military camp in
Manchuria. I ask her why she didn't try to escape.
"Of course I tried to escape several times!"
she says.
"Each time I was taken back and I was beaten over and over. The military police
would ask me 'Why are you trying to escape?' I would tell them because I am cold
and have no food. They would hit me again saying I talked too much."
◆'Ridiculous to deny'
Masayoshi Matsumoto is now 93 and lives with his daughter on the edge of Tokyo.
He has a warm open face and the piercing eyes of a much younger man.
As a 20-year-old he served as a medical orderly in northwest China.
"There were six comfort women for our unit,"
he tells me.
"Once a month I would check them for sexually transmitted diseases.
"The Korean women were mainly for the officers,"
he says.
"So the ordinary soldiers attacked local villages screaming, 'Are there any good
girls here?' Those soldiers robbed, raped, or killed those who did not listen to them."
Those who were captured were taken to Mr Matsumoto's unit to serve as comfort women.
After the war Mr Matsumoto became a priest to try and atone for his sins. For decades
he said nothing of what he'd seen.
But then as the voices of denial grew stronger he was filled with righteous anger,
and decided to speak out.
"It's ridiculous... Mr Abe speaks as if this is something he witnessed, but he didn't.
I did,"
says Mr Matsumoto.
"Someone told me this, 'One who fails to look back and perceive the past will repeat
their wrongdoing'. But Mr Abe thinks we should erase anything bad Japan had done in
the past and pretend nothing happened. That is why I cannot forgive him,"
he adds. Mr Matsumoto sits back in his chair and chuckles.
"One day the right-wingers will come and get me for saying such things,"
he says, drawing a finger across his throat. That seems unlikely, but Mr Matsumoto and
all the other survivors are now in their late 80s or 90s.
