7 October 2022 09:28 am Views - 146
Sri Lanka has sought the assistance of the International Development Association to get concessional financing, as the nation cannot afford commercial borrowings, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.
“We have requested the International Development Association to assist us to get concessional financing as Sri Lanka currently lacks credit worthiness to borrow on market terms from World Bank or any other institution. Countries such as Egypt had followed a similar strategy when their nation suffered economic down turn in the past,” the President said making a special statement in Parliament,
“Sri Lanka’s economy will recover by end 2023 while the rupee will also stabilize by that time. However we have to take steps by informing the public on the status of the nation. We will have to stop printing money. However it has been possible to steady the inflation and keep it at 69.7 percent in September. However it is essential to restructure state enterprises which run at a loss. Total losses of state enterprises such as Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) and Srilankan Airlines will exceed Rs. 4000 billion by the end of this year. We cannot make the people bear this huge burden anymore. We have already embarked on restructuring these enterprises,” he stressed. Focusing on his recent foreign tours, the President said he strived to get maximum benefit to Sri Lanka during the meetings he had, “I strived to get maximum benefit to Sri Lanka by meeting state leaders from UK, Japan, Philippines, representatives from international organizations and foreign ministers. It is less time consuming and cost effective to meet world leaders that way,” he said in this regard.