Sri Lanka has long way to go to achieve strong, sustainable recovery

29-Oct-2024

He stated that under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program they have elements which address some of the priorities of the new government

Sri Lanka has made significant progress in implementing economic reforms, positioning itself to advance quickly toward the third review of the Sri Lanka EFF program, which is coming up soon, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Thursday.

Krishna Srinivasan, director of the International Monetary Fund’s Asia and Pacific Department, noted that when the new government took office recently, he led a high level team to Colombo to discuss and to engage with the authorities.  

He stated that they some very productive discussions with the new government and its team and that the discussions are continuing this week during the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings.  

“Now, there was broad consensus, I would say unanimous consensus, that Sri Lanka, which was tearing at the abyss in 2022, has come a long way in terms of undertaking reforms which have led to some hard won gains, as you can know.”  

“You’ll note that growth has been positive the last four quarters. Inflation is coming down. So there is consensus that the new government, you know from the new government that it would like to safeguard and build on the hard won gains under the program,” Srinivasan said.

He stated that under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program they have elements which address some of the priorities of the new government, including in terms of social protection and so on.

But the details on the program are continuing and they’ll be happening this week in Washington, he added.

“And we are encouraged by what we have heard so far and hoping that, you know, we can move fast towards the third review which will come up soon,” he told a press briefing during the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington.