{"id":130655,"date":"2022-12-14T16:20:52","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T23:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=130655"},"modified":"2022-12-14T16:20:52","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T23:20:52","slug":"imf-not-expected-to-discuss-sri-lanka-before-year-end-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/12\/14\/imf-not-expected-to-discuss-sri-lanka-before-year-end-sources\/","title":{"rendered":"IMF not expected to discuss Sri Lanka before year-end &#8211; sources"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The executive board of the International Monetary Fund is not expected to formally approve Sri Lanka\u2019s $2.9 billion bailout before year-end, a key step required for the embattled country to receive funding, two sources familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seeking a way out of its worst economic crisis in decades, Sri Lanka reached an IMF staff-level agreement in June with the deal subject to approval and contingent on Sri Lanka authorities following through with previously agreed measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka said in September it expected the board to approve the deal by year-end. Progress has been slow in recent months, and Sri Lanka\u2019s finance minister acknowledged last month the request might extend into January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka has to secure prior financing assurances from creditors, put its heavy debt burden on a sustainable path and increase public revenue before the global lender will disburse the funds. The IMF stressed the importance of joint talks involving three of Sri Lanka\u2019s main bilateral creditors &#8211; China, Japan and India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IMF\u2019s online board calendar, which has added meetings through Dec. 22 to discuss progress and new tranches for a number of emerging economies, makes no mention of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to an inquiry, Sri Lanka\u2019s finance ministry said it was 100% focused\u201d on securing IMF approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are taking every necessary policy step to secure financing assurances from our bilateral creditors as quickly as possible,\u201d the ministry said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>IMF officials for Sri Lanka said in emailed comments to Reuters it was difficult to predict the timeline for the Board approval, as the process of debt discussions takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka said in October it aimed to nearly double its tax revenue to around 15% of gross domestic product by 2026 from 8.5% now &#8211; one essential step to unlock IMF funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><em><strong>Source: Reuters<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"IMF not expected to discuss Sri Lanka before year-end - sources (English)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/d_FzUSjAXUk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana The executive board of the International Monetary Fund is not expected to formally approve Sri Lanka\u2019s $2.9 billion bailout before year-end, a key step required for the embattled country to receive funding, two sources familiar with the matter said. Seeking a way out of its worst economic crisis in decades, Sri Lanka reached [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-imf-bailout-package"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}