Sri Lanka President & IMF hold second round of talks

by Teena Marian 27-08-2022 | 2:37 PM

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and the visiting IMF staff team on Friday (26) held a second round of crucial talks to finalise a bailout package for the struggling island nation.

President Wickremesinghe has joined the conversation via zoom, and positive ideas were exchanges between both side, said the President's Media Division.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had made a request for additional information pertaining to electricity tariff revisions and Excise Act and it was decided at Friday's (26) meeting to provide the requested information by next Monday (29).

The President's Media Division said that Financial and legal advisors of the IMF participated in the meeting and the next round of discussion is scheduled for August 31st.

IMF negotiation panel's head Peter Breuer, Deputy Head Masahiro Nozaki, IMF Resident Representative for Sri Lanka and Maldives Dr. Tubagus Feridhanusetyawan, Chief of Staff to the President and Senior Advisor to the President on National Security Sagala Ratnayake, President's Secretary Saman Ekanayake, Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe and other senior officers of the Central Bank were present during the discussion.

This is the second such visit from the IMF in three months. The visit comes at a time when Sri Lanka is scrambling to chalk out a staff-level agreement with the Washington-based global lender for a USD 5 billion program, which could be the antidote for the country's current economic travails.

Sri Lanka's Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe speaking to Bloomberg on Monday (22) said once Sri Lanka reaches a Staff-Level agreement with the International Monetary Fund, the timeline for funding is set to approach all the external creditors and start negotiating in good faith to obtain relief on the payments.

The Governor said Sri Lanka has NOT officially approached creditors yet, as it awaits an agreement on debt targets at the Staff-Level agreement with the IMF.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said only external debt would be restructured, and will not touch domestic debt as it would have a significant impact on the country's banking sector.