Sri Lanka’s request for a $2.9-billion bailout was authorized by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Monday, the South Asian nation’s President Ranil Wickremesinghe introduced.
“We are pleased that the IMF Executive Board approved our program, enabling Sri Lanka to access up to $7.0 billion in funding from the IMF and International financial institutions,” he stated.
A spokesperson for Wickremesinghe advised Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Colombo that he was knowledgeable of the much-awaited govt board’s determination earlier than the Washington-based lender was on account of make a proper announcement.
“I express my gratitude to the IMF and our international partners for their support as we look to get the economy back on track for the long term through prudent fiscal management and our ambitious reform agenda,” Wickremesinghe stated.
The authorities has already doubled taxes, elevated vitality tariffs threefold and slashed subsidies in an effort to satisfy the preconditions of the IMF bailout.
The austerity measures have sparked widespread protests and led to strikes that crippled the well being and logistics sectors final week. Wickremesinghe has stated he had no different however to go along with an IMF program.
The financial disaster since late 2021 led to mass protests which noticed the toppling of Wickremesinghe’s predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in July.
The former president fled the nation and resigned three months after the nation defaulted on its $46 billion exterior debt when it run out of money to finance even essentially the most important imports.
Earlier within the day, Wickremesinghe’s workplace stated he was searching for a 10-year moratorium on Sri Lanka’s overseas debt because the nation was out of overseas reserves to service its loans.
Sri Lanka’s financial system shrank by a document 7.8% final yr because it grappled with its worst overseas change disaster since independence from Britain in 1948.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
