IMF, Sri Lanka begin talks for bailout package

A preliminary round of discussions with the International Monetary Fund, with the aim of finding solutions to the financial crisis facing Sri Lanka, was held at the President’s Office under the patronage of President Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday. Pictur

Source:Dailynews

A preliminary round of discussions with the International Monetary Fund, with the aim of finding solutions to the financial crisis facing Sri Lanka, was held yesterday afternoon (24) at the Presidential Secretariat under the patronage of President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Discussions focused on the financial crisis Sri Lanka is currently facing. It was further decided to hold another round of discussion on Friday,  the 26th and to discuss technical issues with the officials of the Central Bank in the future.

Peter Breuer, Head of the International Monetary Fund’s Negotiation Panel, Deputy Head Masahiro Nozaki, Tubagus Feridhanusetyawan, Permanent Representative of the International Monetary Fund in Sri Lanka, and Chief of Staff to the President and Senior Advisor to the President on National Security Sagala Ratnayake, Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe and several others were present.

The IMF delegation also met Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe yesterday and discussed to reach a staff-level agreement.

The Governor said that this is the 16th occasion that they are discussing with the IMF and the talks focused on restructuring debt of about US$ 29 billion and also to finalize a bailout package for Sri Lanka.

IMF’s Resident Representative for Sri Lanka, Tubagus Feridhanusetyawan and Finance Secretary Mahinda Siriwardana also participated in this discussion held at the Central Bank premises yesterday.

“A detailed summary of the discussions would be made available soon,” the Governor said. Sri Lanka has US$ 9.6 bn in bilateral debt and its private credit, which includes international sovereign bonds, that stands at US$ 19.8 bn, Finance Ministry data show. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission team led by Peter Breuer and Masahiro Nozaki visited Colombo from June 20 to 30, 2022 to discuss IMF support for Sri Lanka. This IMF team would be in Sri Lanka until 31 August. (SS)