This decision was taken in view of the upcoming discontinuation of the Eurepo rate as of December 31, 2014. The change in the SDR interest rate basket will be effective as of January 1, 2015 and will apply for the first time to the calculation of the weekly SDR interest rate for the interest rate period starting on Monday January 5, 2015.

The SDR interest rate provides the basis for calculating the interest charged to members on nonconcessional IMF loans from the IMF’s general resources, the interest paid to IMF members on their remunerated creditor positions in the IMF (reserve tranche positions and claims under borrowing agreements), and the interest paid to members on their SDR holdings and charged on their SDR allocation.

The SDR interest rate is determined weekly and is based on a weighted average of representative yields or interest rates in the money markets of the SDR basket currencies, except if the weighted average falls below the floor for the SDR interest rate of 0.050 percent (5 basis points).

The new 3-month interest rate, as calculated and published by the ECB (see http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/quickview.do?SERIES_KEY=165.YC.B.U2.EUR.4F.G_N_W.SV_C_YM.SR_3M), is derived from a yield curve based on euro area sovereign bonds rated AA and above.