Hiru News

The IMF says Sri Lanka is a middle income country and remains a middle income country even with the decline in GDP that is seen. The Extended Fund Facility is not a concessional. Its a regular IMF facility.

Speaking during the IMF press conference on the Asia and Pacific Region’s Economic Outlook, Deputy Director Anne-Marie Gulde said Sri Lanka remains a middle-income country even with the decline in the Gross domestic product in the past few months.

She noted that Sri Lanka is facing a very severe economic crisis and they are very concerned about what’s going on in Sri Lanka.

Anne-Marie Gulde noted that they are keen to work very fast to end the suffering of Sri Lankans, especially the suffering of the poor and vulnerable.

The IMF Deputy Director of the Asia and Pacific Department said they have reached a staff level agreement on a four-year Extended Fund Facility program on the 1st of September and noted that the initial disbursement of the program will come after the board approval.

She said since Sri Lanka’s debt is assessed as unsustainable at this stage, the IMF is seeking financing assurances from official bilateral creditors and on private sector debt.

Anne-Marie Gulde confirmed that Sri Lanka is currently working with their legal and financial advisors on the debt element.

>She said she cannot predict a timeline on the disbursement of funds since the process of debt negotiations could vary depending on the creditor and other elements.

Deputy Director Anne-Marie Gulde said “And we hope that everybody can work expeditiously to get a process underway, and discussions are have been starting, including with support of all bilateral creditors that are involved.

She added they are working very closely with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Investment Bank, on programs for Sri Lanka.

The IMF Deputy Director of the Asia and Pacific Department said those programs would help for closing the financing gap. But I want to say also very importantly that the policies under the other multilateral lenders in their areas of expertise will be important to resolve Sri Lanka’s longer term growth problems