CB says details of arrangement with IMF will be disclosed once firm agreement reached

Once a firm agreement is entered with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the contents of the IMF programme will be made public with the consent of the both parties, the Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe said.

 Governor Weerasinghe said this yesterday in response to a query based on a recent statement made in parliament by Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardane, where he had said that Sri Lanka had only entered into a draft agreement with the IMF. 

responding to an opposition parliamentarian, the Prime Minister said the contents of the agreement could not be disclosed at the moment.

On September 1, 2022, Sri Lanka entered into a staff-level agreement with the IMF on a 4-year arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of about US$ 2.9 billion subject to IMF management and executive board approval.

“Staff level agreement means an understanding between the IMF and the authorities about the policy package. Before it (agreement) goes to the board (IMF executive board), the Minister (Finance) and the Governor have the authority to sign it; then it will become an agreement and then it will be submitted to the IMF executive board after we get financial assurance from creditors,” Governor Weerasinghe said.

“That’s why from this point to that point, there is still an understanding. Things can also change; inflation can be higher or lower; government revenue can be higher or lower. When you sign an agreement it has to be firm. That’s why I think that has not been shared,” he added. Meanwhile, responding to a Mirror Business query, IMF senior mission chief for Sri Lanka Peter Breuer said policy measures in the staff-level agreement will be published in detail shortly after the IMF executive board approves the EFF arrangement. “According to the IMF policies, the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP), which describes the proposed policy measures in the SLA in detail, will be published shortly after the Board approval of the EFF arrangement,” Breuer said.  “In the interest of transparency, we issued a press release on September 1, and held a press conference on the same day, to disseminate key elements of the SLA. The authorities disseminated further details in a presentation to creditors on September 23,” he added.