Courtesy Adaderana The Resolution for the Implementation of the Arrangement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Sri Lanka was passed in the parliament today (April 28) with majority votes. Members of Parliament voted for the resolution on the implementation of the IMF-supported program following a three-day debate from […]

Courtesy APNews.com COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s president urged lawmakers Wednesday to approve a four-year International Monetary Fund program to reduce the country’s debt by $17 billion through restructuring. Parliament began a three-day debate Wednesday on President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s proposal to accept the IMF program. It will be followed by a vote. If […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka is scheduled to hold debt restructuring talks with the Paris Club, India and China before the discussion with private creditors, President Ranil Wickremesinghe said. Speaking in Parliament this morning (26 April), the Head of State announced that debt restructuring talks will be held with both the Paris Club and India in […]

Courtesy Adaderana The last time emerging markets faced a major debt crisis, in the 1990s, influential creditors, named after traditional centres of diplomacy and finance, could quickly gather in private to agree a solution. These days, bringing together a more diverse group of lenders has proved a more cumbersome exercise. The Paris Club’s members are […]

Courtesy Hiru News Foreign media cited sources familiar with the Paris Club, to say that the group has informed the International Monetary Fund of their willingness to support Sri Lanka’s debt re-structuring. As it stands, only India has confirmed its participation in the restructuring process, with the IMF accepting a letter in this regard. Meanwhile, […]

Courtesy Adaderana China has reiterated the calls on commercial and multilateral creditors to jointly participate in Sri Lanka’s debt restructuring under the principle of fair burden-sharing. According to Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, the Asian economic giant has been in close communication with Sri Lanka and supported Chinese financial institutions in actively discussing debt […]

Courtesy Adaderana A committee of Sri Lanka’s international private creditors sent its first debt rework proposal to the country’s authorities regarding over $12 billion in bonds outstanding, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter. It is the first bondholder proposal after the island nation of 22 million people defaulted on its debt […]

By Aldgra Fredly Courtesy Epoch Times It remains uncertain whether China, Sri Lanka’s biggest bilateral creditor, will join the initiative launched by Japan. Japan, India, and France on April 13 unveiled a plan to initiate a negotiation process with Sri Lanka’s creditors to coordinate the restructuring of Sri Lanka’s debt as the country seeks to resolve […]

Courtesy Financial Express She emphasised that a collaboration among creditors is important to ensure transparency and equality in treatment of all creditors in the debt restructuring discussions. The high-level meeting took place on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)- World Bank (WB) Spring Meetings here on Thursday. (Photo source: Twitter/@FinMinIndia) Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended […]

Courtesy The Hindu Finance Ministers of the three creditor countries will hold a press briefing on the margins of the annual Spring meetings of the World Bank and the IMF in Washington. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with Gita Gopinath, Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, during a meeting on the sidelines of […]

Courtesy Adaderana Japan, India and France are scheduled to hold a press briefing on Thursday (13 April) to announce the launch of the debt restructuring negotiation process on Sri Lanka. International Monetary Fund (IMF) communicated this quoting the Japanese Finance Ministry. Accordingly, the finance ministers of the three creditor countries – Shunichi Suzuki, Bruno Le […]

Courtesy The Hindu Sri Lanka has been struck by a catastrophic economic and humanitarian crisis sparked by years of mismanagement and the raging pandemic. The World Bank has assured crisis-struck Sri Lanka of continued support to stabilise the island nation’s economy and enhance its economic recovery, State Finance Minister Shehan Semasinghe has said. State Finance […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror Leading economist Prof. Rohan Samarajiva, who is also chair of LIRNEasia, spells out the way forward for the country in the aftermath of the arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Excerpts of the interview: Q   Sri Lanka celebrates the arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But, there is a long way […]

By Neville Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island During his address to the Economic Dialogue – IMF and Beyond”, the President declared that Sri Lanka is at a crossroad and it was the nation’s last chance to forge ahead or fail (Daily FT, 31, 2023). Now that Sri Lanka has committed itself to the terms and conditions […]

Courtesy Hiru News Former Central Bank Governor Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy said that foreign creditors would want to get the debt restructuring exercise over with as quickly as possible. He noted that it wouldn’t be in the interests of foreign creditors to put the local banking sector into crisis. He added that macroeconomic indicators had improved […]

Courtesy Adaderana The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) has issued a statement, clarifying a misreporting of the views recently expressed by the CBSL Governor, Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe during a recent media engagement. The media reports in question, which claim that the Governor anticipates a difficult period ahead in the economy, were deemed a ‘gross […]

Courtesy Hiru News Sri Lanka yesterday held an investor presentation in order to explain the current macroeconomic situation and outlined the key pillars and objectives of the IMF program as well as the next steps with regard to the engagement with creditors. Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena and Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe told the […]

By Shivanthi ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today It took exactly one year for the IMF to agree to concede Sri Lanka’s appeal to help face the unprecedented economic crisis that is confronting the Island nation. Though referred to as a bailout, the USD 2.9 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) will hardly help Sri Lanka in the […]

Courtesy Adaderana The International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout will help bring Sri Lanka’s depleted foreign exchange reserve to pre-crisis levels in four years, said the country’s central bank governor. On Tuesday, the IMF extended a long-awaited US$3 billion (S$4 billion) loan to the island nation, which has been reeling since 2021 from its worst economic […]

Courtesy Adaderana Sri Lanka will hold a virtual presentation next week to update its commercial creditors and investors following the receipt of IMF Executive Board approval for the bailout package. The investor and creditor presentation will commence at 8.30 a.m. on March 30, chaired by Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe and Finance Ministry’s Secretary […]

Hiru News

Courtesy Ceylon Today The International Monetary Fund has emphasised the importance of anti-corruption and governance reforms as a central pillar of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF)-supported programme as they are indispensable to ensure the hard-won gains from the reforms benefit the Sri Lankan people. In a statement issued ahead of the IMF press briefing on […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror President Ranil Wickremesinghe today said that he would get the approval and assistance of Parliament to implement the IMF agreement although it is not required by law.  Speaking to Editors of media organizations, Wickremesinghe said that the IMF agreement was a restructuring of the economy and not only of the country’s […]

Courtesy Adaderana China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called on all related parties, in particular Western commercial creditors and multilateral financial institutions, to make contributions to alleviating the debt pressure of developing countries amid the tightening international financial environment. The remarks were made by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, after outgoing World Bank chief David Malpass […]

Courtesy Adaderana Central Bank governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe is optimistic that Sri Lanka will be able to achieve debt sustainability before the dates envisaged through the IMF program currently underway. Joining ‘At HydePark’ on Ada Derana 24, the governor said he believes Sri Lanka has entered a new era, given that the government has now […]

රජිත් කීර්ති තෙන්නකෝන් IMF පළමු වාරිකය ඩොලර් මිලියන 333 ක පළමු වාරිකය මාර්තු 22 (හෙට) ලංකාවේ බැංකු පද්ධතියට ලැබේ.  බොහෝ දෙනා මේ ණය කොන්දේසි හෝ ඉදිරි ක්‍රියා මාර්ග ගැන නොදනී.  බොහෝ දෙනා  ‘ඩොලර් ණය‘ යැයි කියන extended Fund Facility (EFF) ය කුමක් ද? එය ඉතිහාසයේ මෙයට පෙර අවස්ථා හය(6) ක දී සිදු වූ ලෙස කඩාකප්පල් […]

Courtesy Reuters March 22 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is allowing Sri Lanka to utilise funds from its latest bailout for fiscal support, unlike previous loans that could only be used to ease balance of payments crises, central bank governor Nandalal Weerasinghe said in an interview with Bloomberg. Upon receiving the funds from […]

Courtesy Ceylon Today The International Monetary Fund has emphasised the importance of anti-corruption and governance reforms as a central pillar of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF)-supported programme as they are indispensable to ensure the hard-won gains from the reforms benefit the Sri Lankan people. In a statement issued ahead of the IMF press briefing on […]

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam Courtesy The Daily Mirror IMF governance diagnostic exercise to assess corruption and governance vulnerabilities Report to be published by September 2023 Diagnosis to focus on IMF fiscal governance, financial sector oversight, Central Bank governance, market regulations, the rule of law, and AML/CFT Asset recovery legislation to be developed and introduced by […]

Courtesy Adaderana President Ranil Wickremesinghe tabled the IMF staff level agreement on the  Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement for Sri Lanka in Parliament, a short while ago. President Wickremesinghe is currently in Parliament attending today’s parliamentary proceedings and is delivering a special statement on the IMF Extended Fund Facility. He said that at a time […]