Sri Lanka’s third review will come up soon: IMF

Colombo, October 25 (Daily Mirror)- Claiming that Sri Lanka has come a long way in terms of undertaking reforms which have led to some hard won gains, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)said they could move fast towards the third review which will come up soon.

IMF Director of the Asia and Pacific Department Krishna Srinivasan told a special briefing that there is consensus that the new government would like to safeguard and build on the hard won gains under the program. 

"We had some very, very productive discussions with the new government and the team there. And the discussions are continuing this week during the Annual Meetings.  Now, there was broad consensus, I would say unanimous consensus, that Sri Lanka, which was tearing at the abyss in 2022, has come a long way in terms of undertaking reforms which have led to some hard won gains. You'll note that growth has been positive in the last four quarters.  Inflation is coming down. So there is consensus that the new government would like to safeguard and build on the hard won gains under the program," he said.

He said , under the program, the IMF have elements which address some of the priorities of the new government, including in terms of social protection and so on.  

"But the details on the program are continuing and they'll be happening this week in Washington. And we are encouraged by what we have heard so far and hoping that, we can move fast towards the third review which will come up soon," he added.

Responding to a question on the debt restructuring, he said Sri Lanka has reached agreements with the official creditors and in principle with the private creditors. 

"The next step would be to reach a formal agreement with all creditors.  And that's a big step forward.  And of course that's not the end. There's a lot more work to be done in terms of continuing with the reforms because a long way to go before you're on the path of strong and sustainable recovery," he said. 

"Now there was one question on specific tax measures there. I don't want to go to the detail because those are things being worked out in the context of discussions which are ongoing right now. Hopefully, we will move along these negotiations over the next few weeks in a more targeted way," he said.