The right of a member state of the
International Monetary Fund to apply for
money to finance its balance of payments
deficit. Originally, the SDR was linked to
gold and the US dollar. After 1974 SDRs were
defined in terms of a `basket' of the 16
currencies of countries doing 1% or more of
the world's trade. In 1981 the SDR was
simplified to a weighted average of US
dollars, French francs, German marks,
Japanese yen and UK sterling.