Cabraal says request to IMF is routine and on macro fiscal capacity building

Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal yesterday said the request to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was nothing but routine.

Central Bank Governor  Nivard Cabraal

He was responding to Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s revelation on Wednesday that Sri Lanka has in writing sought technical assistance from the IMF implying it was to get independent advice on the country’s economic issues including debt repayment and boosting foreign reserves.  

“Finance Minister's comment yesterday (2) re."#SriLanka informing @IMFNews to provide #expert advice on #economic situation" is about a routine Technical Assistance Program on Macro-Fiscal capacity building for MOF's new Macro-Fiscal Unit. Nothing else,” Cabraal tweeted in an apparent clarification or correction to the Finance Minister’s statement.  

In January the Finance Ministry had requested for a training and technical assistance mission on macro-fiscal capacity building for the newly established Macro-Fiscal Unit.

The IMF said its Fiscal Affairs Department jointly with South Asian Training and Technical Assistance Centre will be able to help Sri Lanka. The training program is to expand on the basic forecasting and economic analysis tools provided in March 2021 to Sri Lanka and go into more debt on the development of a medium-term fiscal framework, present fiscal risk analysis tools and provide exercises on high level budget execution review.