Sri Lanka Prime Minister holds talks with IMF chief on economy 

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe held a discussion with the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva late on Tuesday regarding the current economic situation in the country, his office said.

The latest discussion comes as Sri Lanka has decided to seek IMF assistance to face the ongoing economic crisis. Already the island nation has started steps to restructure its foreign debts after the government suspended all the external debt repayments on April 12.

“The Prime Minister requested that the staff-level delegation from the IMF visit Sri Lanka as soon as possible so that the staff-level agreement could be finalised,” Wickremesinghe’s office said in a statement.

“The Prime Minister explained that negotiations regarding bridging finance was reliant on Sri Lanka and the IMF concluding a staff-level agreement. The Managing Director expressed her willingness to support Sri Lanka in these difficult times.”

Wickremesinghe’s discussion came hours after he called on the IMF to hold a conference to help unite Sri Lanka’s lending partners.

The Prime Minister in the parliament said holding such a conference under the leadership of India, China and Japan will be a great strength to Sri Lanka.

“It is our hope that some consensus on lending approaches can be reached through such a conference,” Wickremesinghe told the parliament on Wednesday in a special statement. (Colombo/June 08/2022)