IMF staff in town on Wednesday on second visit

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Saturday that its staff plans to visit Colombo during 24-31 August to continue discussions with the Sri Lankan authorities on economic and financial reforms and policies. 

The objective is to make progress towards reaching a Staff-Level Agreement on a prospective IMF Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement in the near term.

Because Sri Lanka’s public debt is assessed as unsustainable, approval by the IMF Executive Board of the EFF program would require adequate assurances by Sri Lanka’s creditors that debt sustainability will be restored.

The IMF staff team led by Peter Breuer and Masahiro Nozaki would also continue the engagement with other stakeholders during the visit.

An IMF team first visited in June when it spent 10 days and held meetings with the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Central Bank and Treasury officials. It also met with Parliamentarians, the private sector, civil society and development partners.