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Sri Lanka government leaders had agreed to stick to a reform
programme following a meeting with IMF managing director
Christine Lagarde in Washington on Tuesday, the bank said in a
statement.
Sri Lanka is struggling to restore investor confidence and pay
down its debt after it was plunged into political turmoil in
October when President Maithripala Sirisena abruptly removed
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and then dissolved
parliament.
A court later ruled the move was unconstitutional, and
Wickremesinghe was reinstalled as premier.
"The IMF remains ready to support the Sri Lankan authorities in
these endeavors and an IMF team is scheduled to visit Colombo in
mid-February to resume program discussions," Lagarde said after
meeting with Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera and the
central bank governor Indrajit Coomaraswamy.
"We discussed the challenging economic environment and the
policy priorities for the country. The authorities stressed Sri
Lanka’s continued commitment to their economic reform agenda
under the IMF-supported program," Lagarde said.
A series of credit rating downgrades have made it harder for Sri
Lanka to borrow as it faces record high repayments of $5.9
billion this year, $2.6 billion of which fall due in the first
three months.
On Tuesday, the island nation's junior finance minister Eran
Wickramaratne told Reuters that Sri Lanka is considering an
offer from Bank of China <601988.SS> for a loan of $300 million,
which could be raised to $1 billion, to help it meet repayments
in coming months.
(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani & Shri
Navaratnam)
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