IMF: Sri Lanka's Debt Restructuring Agreements Almost Finalized

COLOMBO (News 1st); The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports significant progress in Sri Lanka's negotiations with official creditors, marking a pivotal step towards restoring the country's debt sustainability.

Peter Breuer, Senior IMF Mission Chief for Sri Lanka, emphasized the importance of these negotiations during a virtual press briefing.

"With respect to the negotiation with the official creditors, first let me just state why this is important, that is the debt of Sri Lanka is unsustainable, and it is important to restore debt sustainability," Breuer stated. He elaborated that achieving debt sustainability involves both fiscal consolidation and debt restructuring.

Breuer highlighted the multiple facets of the debt restructuring process, noting its critical components.

"The debt restructuring, there are many components to it, including with the Official Creditors. Here, we have been following the process closely and have assessed that there is sufficient progress for the debt restructuring to move forward, and to restore debt sustainability."

He revealed that substantial agreements on the financial and legal terms have been reached with both categories of official creditors.

"In fact, both agreements are very close. There is an agreement on the substance, of the financial and legal terms, with both types of official creditors. It is the procedural issues that need to be resolved, and we anticipate, that this will happen very soon," Breuer added.