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一 | Colombo, Oct 17 (UNI) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed deep concern over the current situation in Sri Lanka and said it hopes it will be able to work fast to end the suffering, specially of the country’s poor and vulnerable.
Addressing queries put forward by the media, including that of Mirror Business at a press briefing, the IMF reiterated that although the staff-level agreement on a four-year EFF programme was reached, the initial disbursement of the programme will only come after the board meeting.
IMF Deputy Director (Asia and the Pacific) Anne-Marie Gulde-Wolf said the disbursement of IMF financing was “preconditioned on the authorities taking certain prior actions on which they are already working. And importantly, on reaching a solution on the debt situation so far”, the Daily Mirror reported on Monday.
As the island nation’s debt was assessed as unsustainable at this stage, the IMF official shared that for the IMF executive board to approve it will need two specific financing assurances.
The first would be from official bilateral creditors, where the fund requires assurances that debt sustainability will be restored. The second assurance is to establish there are “good faith” efforts underway to deal with private sector debt.
Sri Lanka is currently working with its legal and financial advisors on this debt element, the Mirror said.
With regard to the timeline, Gulde-Wolf said it was difficult to be specific in this regard since the process of debt negotiations usually takes time.
IMF’s experience from its member nations in this regard was that the timeline differs depending on who the creditors were and what is involved.
“We certainly are supporting the process as much as we can. And we hope that everybody can work expeditiously to get a process underway, and discussions have been starting, including with the support of all bilateral creditors that are involved,” the report quoted her as saying.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Sri Lanka is and will remain a middle-income country even after a decline in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Fund is currently working closely with the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on programmes for Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is expecting to raise up to US$ 2.0 billion worth of bilateral loans collectively from the ADB), the World Bank and other multilateral lenders as bridge financing after country secured programme support from the Fund, according to President and Finance Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
UNI MR。