Govt. hopeful of resolving forex crisis in six months

• Says Finance Minister and CB Governor leading negotiations with creditors and lending agencies 
• No firm decision reached yet to enter into a prpgramme with IMF; but says exploring all options
• President yet to appoint ministerial level committee to negotiate financial assistance from friendly nations
• SL has US$ 6.9bn in external debt to be serviced this year; foreign reserves as at Dec.31. 2021 was US$ 3.1bn

The government remains hopeful of resolving the ongoing foreign exchange crisis within the next six months with Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal leading the negotiations with the country’s creditors and multilateral agencies including the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“We are in discussion with all the agencies. Hopefully, we should be able to manage the current crisis within six months time,” Co-Cabinet Spokesperson and Plantations Minister Ramesh Pathirana told the weekly Cabinet media briefing held in Colombo yesterday.
Although, the government is yet to reach a decision on entering into a programme with IMF, he noted that discussions have been underway with the IMF keeping an open mind to suggestions and proposals to resolve the current crisis. “Yes we are open to all the institutions and all the ideas. So, we have been speaking to the IMF over a period of time. We keep our doors open and at the same time we speak to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other agencies as well,” Pathirana stressed. He recalled that the country obtained its largest-ever IMF loan of US$ 2.6 billion in 2009 when Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was the President.
Although, the Cabinet of Ministers earlier approved a proposal to appoint a Cabinet-level negotiation committee to negotiate financial assistance and debt relief with ‘friendly countries’, Pathirana noted that the ministerial committee is yet to be appointed by the President. 

Therefore, he said the Finance Minister and the Central Bank with the active involvement of Governor Cabraal are leading these negotiations.
Further, the Minister acknowledged that the government is also attempting to restructure some of its foreign loans.
“We hope to restructure some of the loans, but it’s at the discussion level,” he said. 
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already made a request from Beijing to restructure some of the Chinese loans. Sri Lanka has about US$ 6.9 billion in external debt servicing obligations for the year. The government settled a US$ 500 million International Sovereign Bond (ISB) last month, and a US$ 1 billion ISB maturity is scheduled for June this year. 
The country’s gross foreign exchange reserves stood at US$ 3.1 billion at the end of 2021.