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Senior IMF official arriving to brief President

14 Mar 2022

A senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official will be visiting Sri Lanka today (14) and tomorrow (15) to brief President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on the fund’s assessment of the crisis-hit economy, Reuters reported yesterday (13), quoting IMF’s Sri Lanka Mission Chief Masahiro Nozaki. “While the IMF has not received a request for financial support from Sri Lanka, the staff stands ready to discuss options if requested,” Nozaki told Reuters. The visit comes ahead of plans by Sri Lanka to hold formal talks with the IMF next month on how to help the country. The Morning reported last week that Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa will visit the US in the first half of April to hold meetings with the IMF and World Bank, armed with an economic recovery and fiscal consolidation plan formulated in Sri Lanka. Well-placed sources told The Morning that the Finance Minister would most likely depart Sri Lanka on 9 April and the meeting with the IMF is likely to be held on 11 April. Meetings with both organisations will be to obtain their assistance and guidance to overcome the unprecedented economic crisis Sri Lanka is currently experiencing. A concern voiced by the Government when considering the IMF option has been the conditions that the IMF would impose, particularly with regard to any possible condition about slashing public sector jobs. However, economists have countered by saying that the IMF imposes such harsh conditions only if the Government approaches the IMF without a solid economic regeneration plan of its own. It is to address this concern that the Government has formulated a plan which it hopes to convince the IMF to endorse and support. The Finance Minister will be accompanied by Finance Ministry and Treasury Secretary S.R. Attygalle. However, Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, who has been vocally opposed to the option of entering an IMF programme, will not be a part of the visit. Sri Lanka is facing its worst financial crisis in years with the country struggling to pay for critical imports including fuel, food, and medicines. In a periodic review released earlier this month, the IMF called on the Government to implement a “credible and coherent” strategy to repay debt and restore macroeconomic stability.


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