Today, May 11, the personnel of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will land in Sri Lanka.
In advance of the first review trip later this year, the IMF stated that this visit is a part of the ongoing talks between the international lender and the island country.
The representatives of the international lender will remain in Sri Lanka till May 23. According to State Minister for Finance Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, they would contact President Ranil Wickremesinghe shortly after their arrival this morning.
The Director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, Krishna Srinivasan, will participate in this visit from May 12 to 15, according to an IMF release.
The IMF staff team will hold a press conference on Monday night (May 15) in Colombo, which will be presided over by Sarwat Jahan, the IMF Resident Representative in Sri Lanka, Peter Breuer, the Senior Mission Chief for Sri Lanka in the Asia and Pacific Department, and Krishna Srinivasan, the Director of the Asia and Pacific Department of the IMF.
The IMF staff team’s trip to Sri Lanka comes just after the island nation’s leaders publicly requested debt relief at the first meeting of its official bilateral creditors committee. Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia attended as observers.
The group, which has 17 members and is co-chaired by India, Japan, and France, comprises Paris Club creditors as well as other recognized bilateral creditors.
A unified forum for discussions among bilateral creditors to coordinate the restructuring of Sri Lanka’s debt was established last month by France, India, and Japan.
According to government data, Sri Lanka owes bilateral creditors USD 7.1 billion, of which USD 3 billion is owing to China, USD 2.4 billion to the Paris Club of creditor nations, and USD 1.6 billion to India.
Additionally, the government must renegotiate USD 2.7 billion in additional commercial loans as well as USD 12 billion in eurobond debt with foreign private creditors.
The IMF’s executive board authorized the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program in March 2023, but it comes with stringent requirements for economic reforms.
