Washington, Sep 29 (IANS): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that its executive board has approved the distribution of 1.75 billion special drawing rights (SDRs), or $2.7 billion, in remaining windfall gold sales profits as part of a strategy to bolster its concessional lending for low-income member countries.

The resources are in addition to 700 million SDRs ($1.1 billion) approved for a similar but separate operation in February 2012 to support low-income countries, the Washington-based global lender said in a statement Friday.

With the latest decision, the IMF has approved the distribution of the entire windfall profits in the context of strategies to support concessional lending to low-income members, which currently is at a zero interest rate, reported Xinhua.

"This is a major step towards putting our important concessional lending operations for low-income members on a sustainable footing," said IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde.

The IMF sold 403.3 metric tonnes of gold in 2009-10 as part of a plan to ensure the long-term financing of its day-to-day operations through the creation of an endowment using anticipated profits of some 4.4 billion SDRs ($6.8 billion).